Act I of "Cloud 9" invites the audience to engage with Britain's colonial past, but does so by challenging 'the preconceived notions held by the audience in terms of gender and sexuality'. Churchill subverts gender and racial stereotypes, using cross-gender and cross-racial casting: Betty is played by a man in act I, but by a woman in act II; Joshua is played by a white; and Edward is played by a woman in act I and by a man in act II. Churchill deliberately uses this cross-gender,-racial and -age casting to unsettle the audience's expectations.