Review: Blue/Orange - Grand Opera House

by Alex Gordon

Joe Penhall’s psychological thriller, Blue/Orange, after its National Theatre premiere in 2000, won almost every major award for New Play. The Theatre Royal Brighton Productions’ revival, directed by Christopher Luscombe, is pacey, witty and provocative, but it is a complex play and it certainly doesn’t hand things to you on a plate.

Set on a London psychiatric ward, it follows an ideological battle between junior consultant Bruce and his superior Robert over whether black patient Christopher is ready or not to rejoin the community with his ‘Borderline Personality Disorder.’ Bruce wants to retain him for further treatment, Robert wants to let him go.

This raises a whole multitude of other questions. Is Christopher’s schizophrenic behaviour caused by his environment, is it inherent in his race, or is he merely socially insecure? Should he be protected from the public and vice-versa? And why the hell does he say the oranges on the consultancy table are blue? Everything is not simply black and white.

Robert Bathhurst, (aka Downton Abbey’s Sir Anthony Strallan) is excellent as Robert. Awarded many of the best lines, they roll off Bathhurst’s tongue with such eloquent timing and precision that our allegiance often ends up with him instead of Bruce because, as he puts it so pertinently, ‘my semantics are better than yours so I win.’

It was harder to side with Gerard McCarthy as Bruce. Though he performed admirably and with gusto, I found his delivery, at times, whiny and repetitive as well as his gesture; the hands often covered the face in ‘shock’ or chopped the air emphatically when making ‘a point.’ Consequently, I found I did not fully believe him cracking under the pressure of scrutinization from above when he lets rip in his tirade of abuse on Chris in Act Three.

Oliver Wilson provides an understated yet solid performance as Christopher. His affability as a person combined with a nervous laughter, constant repetition of colloquilaisms like ‘know what I mean?’ and unpredictable anger make his portrayal of a schizophrenia sufferer believable and unnerving.

The production as a whole however, feels as though it would be more suited to a more modern and intimate studio space, as opposed to a functioning museum like the Opera House. Colin Falconer’s strikingly stark, clinical set feels unnecessarily bulked out with a moving platform for the sake of filling an overly-large stage.

Oliver Fenwick’s cold blue lighting, brilliantly contrasted by an out-of-place bowel of oranges, though effective, is dulled somewhat by the surrounding faded grandeur.

What I enjoyed most about the production was the construction of the play itself and watching three actors working well together in delivering the ‘pin-ball’ fast dialogue, contrasted with almost Pinteresque moments of stillness before sudden, violent explosions.

This is definitely worth a watch for the talent on display, and for being one of the only plays that confronts head-on one of our last great modern taboos.

And you can hear Alex's full audio review in YorWorld.