BLUE
Written by Thomas Weatherall.
Directed by Deborah Brown. Set & Costume Designers: Jacob Nash & Cris
Baldwin. Lighting Designer: Chloe Ogilvie. Sound Designer & Composer: Wil
Hughes. AV Designer: David Bergman. Production Manager: Richard Whitehouse.
Stage Managers: Gavin Norris & Stephanie Storr. Cast: Callan Purcell as Mark. State Theatre Company South Australia
presents a Belvoir Production. Scott Theatre. February 23 – March 16. Bookings:
adelaidefestival.com.au
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Thomas Weatherall’s Blue is a deeply personal work, a memory monologue that plumbs the pain and confusion of grief and depression. A seascape ripples across the blue water as the soulful songs of Billie Holiday play through the theatre. It is the blue of healing, of tranquility and serenity. It is also the blue of the stormy and perilous seas. It is the blue of the dark clouds of depression and the shadowy depths of the human psyche. Mark (Callan Purcell) is an aspiring writer like his unpublished mother to whom he is a loyal and loving son. He has recently moved out of home and into a shared apartment with housemate Effie. No longer living in the childhood home, Mark and his mother exchange letters between them to maintain the shared love of writing and their bond of devotion.
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| Callan Purcell as Mark in Blue |
Writer Weatherall invites us gently into Mark’s story as Jacob Nash and Cris Baldwin’s atmospheric design of the ocean’s blue water across the cyclorama slowly changes to the plastered walls of the apartment. Mark begins to recount the events of his life that have taken him from the delights of the soothing water and times with his elder brother to the suffocating depression of loss and grief. Blue is no cry for help or heart-wrenching insight into the deep abyss of depression. It is one man’s experience, told honestly and without judgement. There are the moments of anger and denial; the search for support and comfort and the realization that life goes on, even when the most important things in life are gone. Blue is Mark’s journey of struggle and acceptance, and the importance of love in confronting the challenge of depression and grief. Above all there is the realization that there are circumstances that cannot change, such as the brother’s drowning, the mother’s death and the abandonment of the father. And yet, there is always hope, hope that Mark’s relationship with Effie will afford the comfort and the change to resolve the depression that he has recognized since the age of twelve.
Weatherall offers hope in the
comfort of immersion in the cool blue water or the arms of a loved one. There
is no raging against depression’s storm in Weatherall’s direct and truthful
writing. There is no descent into the desperate reliance on medication and
treatment. There is optimism in Weatherall’s narrative and Purcell’s natural
and appealing performance. There is no solution, no holy grail to wipe away the
pain, but there is compassion and Weatherall, director Deborah Brown and actor
Purcell leave us with the impression that Mark will survive, and life will go
on.
Blue is effective in its simplicity. Brown’s direction is simple
and intelligent. She is ably assisted by her creative team, including Nash and
Baldwin’s design, David Bergman’s AV design, Wil Hughes sound design and
composition and Chloe Ogilvie’s lighting design. Brown allows Purcell to be in
the moment and tell the story truthfully and engagingly, skillfully drawing out
the moments of drama and those of quiet contemplation. Blue offers cause for
optimism where there is love and support and the healing power of the ocean. Mark’s journey has been a difficult one, but writer
Weatherall and the Belvoir production leaves me with the feeling that Mark is
one of the lucky ones.