Press: You’d be mad to miss this gripping psychological thriller Blue/Orange at the Baxter this Febr

The award-winning psychological thriller Blue/Orange, by British playwright Joe Penhall, brings psychiatric theory and practice under scrutiny, in the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio, from 12 February to 14 March at 8.15pm, with 7pm performances on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Directed by Clare Stopford the riveting three-hander stars Andrew Buckland (Scrooge, Laugh the Buffalo, Betrayal), Nicholas Pauling (Death of a Colonialist, The Tempest, Amadeus) and newcomer Marty Kintu (iVirgin Boy, War Horse), with design by Patrick Curtis.

Winner of the Evening Standard Award, London Critics' Circle Theatre Award and the 2001 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, Blue/Orange craftily mixes up mental illness, with issues of race, ethnocentricity and power. Blue/Orange is wryly comedic; there is method in the madness as a compelling and witty battle of freedom and ambition is unleashed between the three characters.

Kintu plays a young black man, Christopher,who claims to be the illegitimate son of Idi Amin, while insisting that oranges are blue. After a month of observation in a Psychiatric unit Christopher is excited to be going home. But the young registrar Bruce (played by Pauling) and his mentor and supervisor Robert (played by Buckland) can’t agree on Christopher’s diagnosis.Is he suffering from a brief psychotic episode? Or is he suffering from the far more serious category of paranoid schizophrenia? Christopher becomes the ball in a deadly game of power between the two white men.

CurtainUp described it as “a psychological boxing match in which the patient whose treatment triggers a professional disagreement between two psychiatrists becomes their punching bag.”

Dominic Cavendish from The Telegraph said, “The play treats a familiar theme – who’s mad and who’s sane? – with pulse-quickening insight and wit. It cuts to the heart of controversial questions about cultural assumptions and racial prejudice with surgical precision.”

Joe Penhall is a playwright and screenwriter who garnered several awards for his work which include Haunted Child, Some Voices, The Long Firm, Moses Jones and Pale Horse. He has written over 10 plays, more than five films and television adaptations of his own work - in 2005 Blue/Orange was adapted for TV.

Productions which Clare Stopford has directed at the Baxter in recent years include Mike van Graan’s Green Man Flashing, Lara Foot’s Reach and Ariel Dorfman’s Purgatorio. She holds a Master’s Degree and is a senior lecturer at UCT’s Drama School.

“I am frequently asked why I haven’t adapted Blue/Orange from the English to the South African context where the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of black mental patients are a large and relevant issue,” says Stopford. “Here, our racial past and present and our conflicted notions of cultural difference or sameness make the topic of black mental health diagnosis politically fraught. I thought it could be useful to look at the issue sideways, from a different angle, and not fully in the face. In this way we can perhaps think differently or freshly about the problem.This is what Joe Penhall’s hugely articulate play does for us in South Africa. It gives us an opportunity to think about our own problems while looking at someone else’s (in this case another country’s).”

At the Baxter in recent years Andrew Buckland has appeared in Scrooge, Laugh the Buffalo, the Baxter Andrew Buckland Festival, showcasing The Ugly NooNoo, Between the Teeth and Mistero Buffo and Betrayal. Nicholas Pauling was in Death of Colonialist, The Tempest, Waiting for the Barbarians, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hamlet and Amadeus. This is Marty Kinty’s debut at the Baxter. Most recently he was one of the puppeteers on Joey, the horse, in the smash-hit War Horse.

The Baxter Monday special applies for Blue/Orangewhere patrons pay just R100 for a light meal and a show on 23 and 30 February and 2 and 9 March, all at 7pm.

The production previews at the Baxter from 12 to 17 February, opens on 18 February and runs until 14 March at 8.15pm with Monday and Tuesday performances at 7pm and there is a matinee on Saturday, 21 February at 2.30pm.

Ticket prices range from R100 to R150 and there is an age restriction of 12 years.

Booking for Blue/Orange is through Computicket on 0861 915 8000, online at www.computicket.com or at any Shoprite Checkers outlet. For discounted corporate, schools or block-bookings, charities or fundraisers, contact Sharon on 021 680 3962, email sharon.ward@uct.ac.za or Carmen on 021 680 3993, email carmen.kearns@uct.ac.za.

Press Release provided by Christine Skinner.