Bluets
An ultra-maudlin, super lachrymose slice-of-life portrait of depression and lost love, Bluets, Maggie Nelson’s book of prose poetry adapted for the stage by Margaret Perry is a step in the right direction for the live cinema genre: just a shame about the text, really.
Known for her bold staging of other novelistic adaptations (Orlando at Berlin’s Schaubühne and Little Scratch at Hampstead Theatre are but a few notable examples), Katie Mitchell has unlocked a new level of visual perfectionism and rigour. Three performers (Ben Whishaw, Emma D’Arcy, and Kayla Meikle) come to meet three high quality cameras, stood atop of fixed tripods. Three tables are in front of them with an assortment of props a la Little Scratch — though, this time, without too many foley effects. Thee screens are directly behind the performers. This is going to be a performance of a multitide of dimensions. Though the three actors are each incredibly different, they don the exact same costumes— D’arcy and Whishaw even have the same hairstyle! — adding to a new, hybridic willing suspension of disbelief. They are physically present onstage the entire time, but their actions are digitally captured and carefully framed on a larger screen atop the three smaller screens.
We begin with a love affair. This is not an affair with a person, but rather, with the colour blue. Our subject, portrayed, in turns, by all three performers, has developed an affection bordering on obsession with blue: they have started to see blue in everything, collecting blue objects, seeing the colour even in every day items (a gym towel, the paint on the floor) when it may or may not be actually there. Much of the subject’s journey is relayed to us through London’s cityscape: we are taken to nearly every museum— from the Natural History Museum to the British Museum to Tate Modern. The Tube makes several noticable appearances (and the fact that a grey pole of the exact same colour as the Jubilee line is heavily featured says all you need to know about the careful attention to detail in the prouction), in addition to numerous taxi, and car trips.
It’s a cinematic foray into a modern flanuer— a Lonely Londoner for contemporary hipsters and poetry lovers — that is carefully concocted. When sitting on the Tube, for instance, the actor makes sure to place themselves precisely so that the top of their head is located 1/3rd of the way up the window, their phone, just above eye level. A gentle rock signals the abrupt jolts of the train as it zooms to its next stop. The actors are not the only ones carefully directed: the stagehands are easily the stars of the show, ensuring that props are quickly placed in enough time to prepare for the next filmed scene/vignette. And it's hard not to notice an array of markers on the floor -- more than I've ever seen in my 15 years of performing and theatre-going -- informing where actors and props are placed in any given moment.
Live cinema's success sings here precisely because of the element of danger lurking underneath: What if one of the stagehands forgets their next cue? What if one of the actors accidentally skips ahead of takes another's line? One little mistake would upend the entire experiment. This iteration truly puts the haphazardness of the 'live' back into live cinema.
However, the only drawback, to my mind, is the text. Yes, it is a show about depression, loneliness, and the subject's inability to cope (rarely a moment passes when they don't mention the last time the couple had sex, and the unbelievable fact it lasted 6 hours) without their lover, who has jilted them. It is mopey, it is introspective, and it's enough to drive this audience member just a bit crazy. It's precisely like that one friend you have whose partner has lied and cheated repeatedly, and they keep going back again and again, contrary to your stern advice. The production itself satisfies, but is the staging at odds with the text, or is it the text that's better left read instead?
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Bluets is playing at The Royal Court Theatre until 29 June 2024. For more information, go here: https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/bluets/.
