Blue/Orange

by Joe Penhall

In a London psychiatric hospital, an enigmatic patient claims to be the son of an African dictator - a story that becomes unnervingly plausible. An incendiary tale of race, madness and a Darwinian power struggle at the heart of a dying National Health Service, Blue/Orange premiered at London's Cottesloe Theatre in April 2000 and transferred to the West End in 2001.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Audiobook, Psychology, Fiction, 21st Century

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 2000

Reviews

[Mahdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

دیالوگ‌ها با اینکه ترجمه‌ش رو خوندم بسیار خوب و قوی بود اما خود داستان معمولی! من رو تا حدی یاد اولئانای دیوید ممت می‌انداخت.

[Taylor Rousselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

ouuuu baby the philosophical essay i could write (and probably will write) about this play 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

fanon is ALL UP in this bitch fr 🫡

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A play about the struggle of power, race and use of language in an NHS hospital. The language and plot developments are clever, slowly weaving the characters and their words together it also harks back to the PC brigade of what you can and call people and what is procedure and what is right and if being PC is right. It is also a bit Pinteresque as the action all takes place in one room over the course of a day. Worth a read for anyone interested in contemporary theatre or race in theatre.

[Paul Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have always enjoyed this excellent Joe Penhall play. I think this is the second or third time I’ve read it and still find its story and dialogue very compelling. ‘Blue/Orange” is a three-hander taking place in a British psychiatric hospital, where battles of will and manipulation are fought between three men: a young doctor named Bruce, his elder mentor and supervisor Robert, and a troubled young mental patient named Christopher. The doctors are white, the patient is a person of color.

Color, needless to say, plays an important part in “Blue/Orange.” Race and racial bias certainly comes into consideration throughout the play. Also, Christopher sees an orange as having a blue color, and also shows signs of paranoid schizophrenia. The chief conflict of the play is that the eager Bruce wants to keep Christopher in the hospital for further help and a proper medical diagnosis, while the pragmatic, laid-back Robert just says there’s nothing unusually wrong with Christopher and that he should be sent home.

Both Bruce and Robert have different agendas, with Robert having more cost-saving, selfish, and career-minded motives while Bruce just wants to help a patient and perform his job to the best of his ability. Neither man is entirely innocent, nor entirely guilty, yet their arguments bring out both the best and the worst of their humanity, with poor Christopher being caught in the middle of a medical, ethical, semantical, moral argument that seems to be out of his realm of understanding.

Questions of who was right, who was wrong, and what was the best thing for Christopher remains unanswered, yet the war of words and accusations continues on at the end of “Blue/Orange,” leaving the reader (or audience) left to ponder it all, and wonder which side they sit or stand on.

[Bruce Costella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this on a recommended reading list for drama on the /lit/ wiki page and boy howdy am I glad I gave it a go. A budding psychiatric doctor determines at the end of a court mandated twenty-eight days that his patient is clearly schizophrenic and requires further evaluation. Claiming to be the illegitimate son of a Nigerian dictator, the patient's only goal is to return home. However it is opinion of the doctor's more seasoned supervisor that the patient is mentally fit and can return home without impunity. What follows is an examination of mental illness, the healthcare industry and race in contemporary England.

Penhall is a masterclass in dialogue, his characters are at once funny and poignant. When characters interact their words carry a sparring quality and it is a joy to follow the verbal ripostes, parries and jabs as they each vie for what they want. The plot develops organically and deceptively, coming to a mostly satisfying conclusion. I appreciate that the story boils down to an interpersonal conflict that is open to as much or as little nuance as the reader wants to take away from it. Highly suggested.

[Pauline Butcher Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very clever and enthralling play gets top marks for holding my attention through every word spoken. Christopher, a black patient in his 20s is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and has been detained for 28 days under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. He describes an orange as blue in colour and states his father is Idi Amin. It is the day of Christopher’s release but Bruce, a junior doctor thinks Christopher is really schizophrenic and should be detained longer. Robert, his senior, disagrees because they need the bed. Their disagreement and interviews with Christopher is the play. My quibble is that I don’t believe doctors speak to each other or to their patients with such contempt. 8/10
Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa

[Alyce Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read the beginning of this play as an unseen text at the start of our English literature module. It's been playing on my mind since, so when I spotted it in the library yesterday I couldn't resist giving it a full read.
This is a no holds barred exploration of the system in place is mental health establishments. Bruce believes that his patient, Christopher, is schizophrenic, and they need to keep him in for longer. Robert, his superior, undermines him: they can't keep Christopher in, because they have a shortage of beds. It wouldn't be following procedure.
The angel and the devil psychiatrists contrasting with the rapidly unraveling Christopher makes the tension unbearable. I'd love to see this performed. It's powerful on the page, but would be even more so up on stage.

[Kate Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m sure I can’t write a review that does this justice, but I’ll try, in brief.

The play is pretty brilliant. I found myself, at first, identifying and agreeing with one of the doctors but then quickly seeing substance in what the other doctor was saying, until I too didn’t know the right thing to do in the situation. The health system is so complex. There is much to consider: personal, professional, political ... it’s hard. And I don’t think anyone in the NHS would tell you otherwise.

What I found particularly interesting was that one doctor in the play found the other to be racist (or displaying racist behaviours) for considering the patient’s race in his professional decision, whereas he found the OTHER doctor to be racist for NOT considering this.

Read the play. It’s important.

[Tobias Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

After hearing so much about this play and the almost heralded status of the original NT production, I was left a little disappointed after reading it. It has dated a little and I think therefore not as revelatory as it would have been when it was first staged but such is my disappointment that I was left with the curiosity that maybe I was missing something.

I can only hope that when seeing in production, the play becomes deserving of it's lauded status.

[Saravanan Mani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched this play back in 2016 and listened to it again a good 7 and a half years ago. It is really as compelling and controversial as it felt all those years ago. The crux of the matter is, despite the audience's alignment with one character more than another, the question of which of the two doctors' approaches is more helpful is left too close to call. Really, one of the great plays of the 21st century.

[Gretta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful! Not only does Blue/Orange manage to deal with heavy issues surrounding mental health, treatment and racism in medicine, but it manages to be really funny in the process. The dialogue is natural, even the stammering is wonderful.

[Michael Reffold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking and realistic - I imagine it would be even more powerful when seen on stage.

[Rob]

Timely. I think a national reckoning on healthcare is coming and it’s fascinating to revisit perspectives on the NHS from two decades ago when the discourse seems so stuck in a perpetual present.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world is blue as an orange

No error the words do not lie
They no longer allow you to sing
In the tower of kisses agreement
The madness the love
She her mouth of alliance
All the secrets all the smiles
Or what dress of indulgence
To believe in quite naked.
The wasps flourish greenly
Dawn goes by round her neck
A necklace of windows
You are all the solar joys
All the sun of this earth
On the roads of your beauty.

(Paul Eluard)

Концепцията за въздействието на цветовете е разработена за първи път от Йохан Волфганг фон Гьоте. Той доказва, че предпочитаните от човек цветове дават представа за моментното му състояние.
Ето един кратък тест за Вас. Помислете в какъв ред бихте поставили за себе си цветовете оранжево и синьо.
Първият цвят, който си намислихте, характеризира Вашето емоционално състояние в момента, а вторият – Вашата личност по принцип.
Направете своите изводи.
Оранжевият цвят действа много меко, влиянието му е топло и възбуждащо. Той е свързан със стремежа към самоутвърждаване. Но в същото време, онези които са прекомерно вкопчени в него, са повърхностни, имат неустойчиви интереси и постоянна потребност от нови занимания.
Синият цвят символизира постоянство, упоритост, настойчивост, преданост. Хората, които го предпочитат, се стремят към ред и дисциплина, но са склонни да бъдат раздразнителни и мнителни.
Какъв портокал сте Вие?

[Marybeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Penhall, an English writer, is known for his three-character full length plays, and this is the best of the several I read. It's about a young African man who has been institutionalized for thirty days of observation because of mental illness and the two doctors that treat him (and don't agree on a course of action). Complicating matters further is the patient's insistence that he's the son of Idi Amin. The dialogue is intense and fast-paced, and the patient sometimes gets lost in the power struggle between the two doctors. It deals head on with race and the politics of medicine and treating the mentally ill.

[Robert Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the West End production with Bill Nighy as the consultant and it was fabulous. Later I saw I rather poor rendition of the same play at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle. This tells me that much of the power of the book is in the subtext. The fundamental insecurity of the three main characters is not so much in the words as in the group dynamics; all of them have vulnerabilities. Sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, this remains one of my favorite late 20th Century Plays.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like I should have been all over this, with themes of mental illness, ethnicity and politics, but didn't quite ring true for me somewhere - maybe it would be different in performance. Would love to have seen the original cast of Ejiofor/Lincoln/Nighy.

[sofia wahlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Play that I would love to see live, important issue with many different views.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inmates are running the asylum ....

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't help comparing this play to The Shrike, another award-winning drama set in a mental hospital. The dialogue in The Shrike was more real and believable.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written as a screenplay. Office politics, racism, and a doctor's self-importance get in the way of an accurate diagnosis for a black schizophrenic.