Blue Heart

by Caryl Churchill

“These are substantial, provocative, immensely stylish works which create an unsettling mixture of wild laughter and profound unease…a major hit.” – Daily Telegraph

“A fiendishly clever and surreal play, timed to perfection!” – The Guardian

“One of the wittiest, most gorgeously performed theatrical events… Ms Churchill [is] possessor of one of the sharpest and most restless theatrical imaginations in the world today.” -Ben Brantley, New York Times

Blue Heart consists of two related short plays, both teasingly entertaining and brilliantly executed, one about a father and daughter, the other about a mother and son.

In Heart’s Desire , a father, mother and aunt are waiting for a woman to arrive home after years in Australia. In Blue Kettle , a middle-aged man and his girlfriend are involved in a con, making elderly women believe they are the man’s long-lost mother. But neither play is what it seems, as something catastrophic threatens to disrupt and destroy them.

Caryl Churchill has written for the stage, television and radio. A renowned and prolific playwright, her plays include Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Far Away, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, Bliss, Love and Information, Mad Forest and A Number . In 2002, she received the Obie Lifetime Achievement Award and 2010, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, British Literature, College

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Caryl Churchill (born 3 September 1938) is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, dramatisation of the abuses of power, and exploration of sexual politics.[1] She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and one of world theatre's most influential writers.

Her early work developed Bertolt Brecht's modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of 'Epic theatre' to explore issues of gender and sexuality. From A Mouthful of Birds (1986) onwards, she began to experiment with forms of dance-theatre, incorporating techniques developed from the performance tradition initiated by Antonin Artaud with his 'Theatre of Cruelty'. This move away from a clear Fabel dramaturgy towards increasingly fragmented and surrealistic narratives characterises her work as postmodernist.

Prizes and awards

Churchill has received much recognition, including the following awards:

1958 Sunday Times/National Union of Students Drama Festival Award Downstairs
1961 Richard Hillary Memorial Prize
1981 Obie Award for Playwriting, Cloud Nine
1982 Obie Award for Playwriting, Top Girls
1983 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (runner-up), Top Girls
1984 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Fen
1987 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy of the Year, Serious Money
1987 Obie Award for Best New Play, Serious Money
1987 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Serious Money
1988 Laurence Olivier/BBC Award for Best New Play, Serious Money
2001 Obie Sustained Achievement Award
2010 Inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Plays

Downstairs (1958)
You've No Need to be Frightened (1959?)
Having a Wonderful Time (1960)
Easy Death (1960)
The Ants, radio drama (1962)
Lovesick, radio drama (1969)
Identical Twins (1960)
Abortive, radio drama (1971)
Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen, radio drama (1971)
Owners (1972)
Schreber's Nervous Illness, radio drama (1972) – based on Memoirs of My Nervous Illness
The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution (written 1972)
The Judge's Wife, radio drama (1972)
Moving Clocks Go Slow, (1973)
Turkish Delight, television drama (1973)
Objections to Sex and Violence (1975)
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976) [7]
Vinegar Tom (1976)
Traps (1976)
The After-Dinner Joke, television drama (1978)
Seagulls (written 1978)
Cloud Nine (1979)
Three More Sleepless Nights (1980)
Top Girls (1982)
Crimes, television drama (1982)
Fen (1983)
Softcops (1984)
A Mouthful of Birds (1986)
A Heart's Desire (1987)[18]
Serious Money (1987)
Ice Cream (1989)
Hot Fudge (1989)
Mad Forest (1990)
Lives of the Great Poisoners (1991)
The Skriker (1994)
Blue Heart (1997)
Hotel (1997)
This is a Chair (1999)
Far Away (2000)
Thyestes (2001) – translation of Seneca's tragedy
A Number (2002)
A Dream Play (2005) – translation of August Strindberg's play
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (2006)
Seven Jewish Children – a play for Gaza (2009)
Love and Information (2012)
Ding Dong the Wicked (2013)
Here We Go (play) (2015)

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Ch...

Reviews

[t6ika · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars - heart’s desire,
3 stars - blue kettle

[Sleepy Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

~University reading~
The first play in this, Hearts desire, was my favourite. From an audience perspective, I believe this would be well recieved by viewers and an enjoyable production. As of my reading of the play, I found it to be quite infuriating that none of the plot points seemed to go anywhere. However, I realise that this is the way it is meant to be presented. I enjoyed that the play went off on different tangents and its interesting that Curchhill leaves the readers/audience hanging, never fully giving them the satisfaction of answers to the questions the play raises. From a 'technique' perspective, the play is informative into looking at innovative techniques within theatre which are useful in throwing an audience or creating tension within a piece. For example, the use of looping and altering dialogue.
I didn't really like the second play, Blue Kettle, which is why I rated the short collection this way. I think it was a cool idea to begin the peiece however, you don't really understand her intentions unless you read the blurb before beginning the second play. Compared to Hearts desire, I feel this play paled in comparrison. I feel like some people will like this play, it just wasn't for me.
Over all, it was a pleasent read.

[Steven Godin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Churchill's Top Girls is a top play and one of the best I've come across by a female playwright.
I've also had the pleasure of seeing it performed too.

Can't say the same for this weak effort. It just wasn't very good at all.
More like something a sixth-form drama student would write when they are bored and half asleep.

[SB · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Catching up with university reading.)

Two unusual plays, both short and sweet. One about a family stuck in a never-ending cycle of waiting with alternative possibilities, and another about a conman (with an increasingly confusing script).

[Emilia Macchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gusta Caryl Churchil; es entre incómoda, absurda y sádica.
Ahora, leer teatro nunca es tan entretenido como verlo; mi entusiasmo recaía más en ideas y videos sobre montajes que se han hecho antes.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blergh

[John Stammers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seems to be a marmite kind of play, you either love it or hate it. Churchill is my second favourite playwright, and she has a knack for making the strange entertaining (for me anyway).

The play is split into two one act plays, both focusing on family. The first involves a mother and father awaiting for their daughter to return home. It's all one scene, but it resets and rewinds to previous moments of dialogue to explore many different scenarios that could play out. The possibilities are endless, and they range from the usual drama of affairs and murder to the absurdity of invading gunmen and intrusion of a large animal. Imagine writing something and constantly thinking, but what if this happened? And what if this happened? And this? What about this?

The second is about a man who was adopted as a child who tries to con a number of elderly women that gave up their son many years ago. The narrative is simplistic, but what makes it stand out is how words are replaced with "blue" or "kettle." At first I still found the dialogue easy to follow, context made it clear what words were being replaced. I had begun to wonder if the purpose was to convey just how little meaning words on their own have. Implying that context and action have a more important role in conveying understanding than the word itself. Although, more and more words are replaced with "blue" and "kettle" until it degrades into variations of "bl" and "ue" and "ket", etc. I have a feeling body language and tone would convey the meaning if one were to see this performed live.

Overall, this is a play that will irritate some and intrigue others. It's by no means Churchill's best work, but it's a fine play in my eyes nonetheless.

[Rachel Leanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Um...
Well...

Hearts Desire was just weird with all the strange resetting and scenes that came out of nowhere including cannibalism, murder, gun-men, plane crashes etc. Just weird. I didn't like having to re-read the same lines over and over again either. I wasn't a fan.

And Blue Kettle... it gets worse... what..... was... that...
I assume it must have some abstract higher meaning? but to me it was gibberish... nothing but gibberish...
like, what the hell was that all about?

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit odd.
Read some reviews, which helped in understanding the significance of the work.
Definitely better, I’d imagine, to watch it then read it. Especially with “Blue.” That one devolves into chaos, but what she’s aiming to do seem pretty impactful. The uselessness of words perhaps. The drama and randomness of family.
Could be fun to use in a theater class, although it’d be really hard. Might be tough for a high schooler.
It’s a 3 above, but I’d give it a 3.5 if I could.

[Shane Hickey · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Heart's Desire" is an exciting, frenetic, powerful piece of playwrighting you can really get your teeth into...
"Blue Kettle" as a concept is a lot of fun but on paper it comes accross as a garbled, pretentious mess. I love Churchill's work but I was so disappointed by "Blue Kettle" after the joy that was "Heart's Desire".

[Edie Walls · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was super weird. We read Heart's Desire aloud in my dramatic lit class and even hearing it instead of reading it, this is just a bizarre play. I enjoyed the concept but the execution definitely went over my head.

[Regan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty weird, but I had a good time.

[olive · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't love the first play at all. Second play was interesting in terms of family dynamics.

[Anneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What an extraordinary blue kettle."

[Georgia Paterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

like heart’s desire more than blue kettle. interesting take on form and breaking convention.

[Irreverent · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't get it, I think I may be too obtuse to grasp it.

[Kenji · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe these especially experimental Caryl Churchill plays make more sense staged instead of merely read on a page? “Blue Kettle” in particular left me scratching my head.

[Kester · Rating 4 out of 5]

a joy to read. would be a nightmare to produce.

[Julia Bartow Fuchs · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt like I was having an aneurism while reading this

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heart’s Desire: 4 stars
Blue Kettle: 3 stars

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
Blue heart - a combination overarching title that works in multiple representative ways. I was keen to read a play and although not heard of Churchill before this type of story was just what I was craving - kitchen sink drama that doesn’t take itself too seriously? Or does it...? Also, I was a fan of Andy de la Tour as a child (“think once, think twice, think don’t drive your car on the pavement” comedy darkness) so that made his characters instantly inhabited for me.

Heart’s Desire - 5*
I’ve not come across a play that uses continual false starts as a method before but in this narrative context it completely fit. The moments we’ve all had in a sense of occasion - waiting and rehearsing words and conversation in secret from the external part of your own mind - the moment that you want to look spontaneous and perfect but often then wish you’d have said something differently or raised an alternative element or argument. Which is the better approach - over analysis or casual off the cuff joining - if only we could predict what other people were about to contribute... but we wouldn’t be talking to them in a protracted manner unless interested...

“...when they’ve gone you think why didn’t I make better use of them when they were still there, you can’t do right in those situations...”


Blue Kettle - 3*
Evocative use of the colour blue and the image, with an increasing change in dialogue - to protect the narrator? Kettles and lies... just as I thought I’d worked it out, the pattern of use changed again! I found it hard to warm to the characters in this though, and my mental image of the blue kettle was not a nice one...

I don’t think that either play would be performed as laugh out loud style deliveries but I would definitely try and see if staged. Also interested to read more by Churchill

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play is really interesting in the multiple levels of division. The play consists of two smaller plays--Heart's Desire and Blue Kettle--thematically linked through their concerns with familial relations and problems of identity. The first play, Heart's Desire, is the story of a family waiting for the return of their daughter Suzy from Australia. The play features a number of breaks, rewinds, and repetitions, offering a number of possible scenarios.
Blue Kettle I initially found interesting, telling the story of a man who is trying to con elderly women by pretending to be their long lost child given up for adoption. The plot of the play is pretty straightforward, but it becomes increasingly difficult to follow the dialogue as the words 'blue' and 'kettle' begin to be substituted for other words in conversations without any characters seeming to note or be bothered by the change. By the last scene of this play, the dialogue has been almost entirely replaced by the terms 'blue' and 'kettle' and broken up sounds and letters from these words, 'ket,' 'tle,' 'bl,' 'ue,' and k, b , l, and so on. These replacements make the dialogue harder and harder to follow until only the general attitude of the dialogue would be conveyed through performance.

[Wendi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blue Heart contains two plays: Heart's Desire and Blue Kettle. I enjoyed reading Heart's Desire. It constantly resets to a point in the play already performed, and strange people/creatures often make their way onto the stage (for example, a ten foot tall bird) without explanation or comment. Yet there is an emotional center to the play (a dysfunctional family waiting for the arrival of their daughter, whom they haven't seen in many years) that gives this play a certain degree of coherence.

Blue Kettle, on the other hand, explodes with artifice. The play centers around a man who has conned several elderly women into believing that he is the baby they gave away for adoption. "Blue" and "kettle" randomly replace other words at an accelerated rate, until the last page or so is composed entirely of shorthand, abbreviated goobledy-gook. Reading this play was an irritating experience, and I imagine watching it performed would be even more irritating.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read 1/1/13.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little confusing but I'm sure that's because it would make much better as a play in the theatre rather than on the page. A few bits of wisdom but mostly an interesting technique.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

These plays made me sad about human relationships.