Synopsis

Clouds of Glory is a play set at Simon Fraser University, though this is never explicitly stated. The main characters are members of the philosophy department (unsurprisingly enough, Betty was an English professor at SFU). The play is filled with intriguing and paradoxical characters, including Jessie who has a PhD in logic but can never make up her mind. Clouds of Glory takes place during the time the War Measures Act was enacted by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Politics and activism play central roles, alongside themes of sex, power and morality. Of course, Betty's wit is on full display, and she doesn't shy away from poking fun at Canadians..."[We] are the only people in the world who can raise self-pity to the level of political theory."

Theatrical Productions

1. New Play Centre, Vancouver East Cultural Centre, May 8, 1979.

Reviews

"There is both the nebulous and the radiant in Betty Lambert's Clouds of Glory...it moves in a kind of soft geometry, with tangent circles inside larger circles, and a focus that doesn't shift so much as expand and contract."
     -Maureen Peterson, The Gazette

About the Play

"I wanted to do it for this damn country. We've had a crisis, we did lose our virginity, damn it! I lay out the enigma, the dilemma; I don't promulgate a particular philosophical point of view."

-Betty Lambert

Bibliography

Clouds of Glory, 1979, Playwrights Press Canada??