Royal & Derngate Northampton, Theatre Royal Bath Productions, and Oxford Playhouse present the multi award-winning drama Blue/Orange, which opens at Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio from 29 October to 13 November 2021, before dates at Oxford Playhouse from 16 November to 20 November 2021 and Royal & Derngate, Northampton from 23 November to 4 December 2021.
Twenty years after Joe Penhall’s (Mindhunter, The Road) ground-breaking Blue/Orange premiered, he collaborates with co-creators Giles Terera (winner of the 2018 Olivier Award for Hamilton), Michael Balogun (Death Of England, National Theatre) and Royal & Derngate’s Artistic Director James Dacre (2020 Olivier Award Nominee Our Lady Of Kibeho) on a brand new production shining new light upon this incendiary interrogation of power and privilege in modern Britain. The play won the Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard awards for Best New Play in 2001.
Giles Terera said: “I vividly remember how fired up and moved I was watching Joe Penhall’s extraordinary play when it premiered. I believe the play can speak to us just as much, if not more so now as it did then. Getting to explore its themes of identity, mental health, race and a power struggle at the heart of the NHS alongside Michael Balogun is something I’m very excited about”
The creative team includes Francesca Murray-Fuentes as Associate Director, Simon Kenny as Designer, Tony Gayle as Sound Designer, Valgeir Sigurðsson as composer, Hazel Holder and Ellie Manners as Voice and Dialect Coach.
In a London psychiatric hospital, a mysterious patient wants out. The problem is that, to him, oranges are bright blue and Muhammed Ali is a whole lot more than just a boxer.
As his doctor and senior consultant debate whether to section or release him, an extraordinary new claim causes them to become more and more divided in their diagnosis. Their power struggle escalates into a startling and provocative exploration of power and privilege, revealing uncomfortable truths about all three men.
