By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 18 May 2024, opens 24 May and runs through 29 June 2024 RUNTIME: 80 minutes (no interval)

Whishaw is perhaps best known as the voice of Paddington bear or the face of Q in the Bond films and last trod London’s theatre boards in Julius Caesar at the Bridge Theatre in 2018.

• Read on for reasons including why this is a a cult piece with the occasional laugh which many may find absorbing yet offputting

Here he is 1 of 3 actors voicing the same central character who is obsessed by the colour blue in a production which is part radio play with microphones yet also heavily reliant on cameras and screens as Jamie Lloyd’s big Olivier Awards winner this year Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre) was.

Based on Maggie Nelson’s poetry collection, Bluets has the feel of a spoken word piece with each of the actors frequently completing each other’s lines and often appearing on a giant screen above the stage with a mini screen behind them in a piece which must be hugely challenging technically to get right.

As well as her affinity to the colour blue, Nelson investigates the loss of her lover, whom she calls ‘the prince of blue’ and her relationship to a close friend rendered quadriplegic after an accident.

Questions are asked: do people who are depressed see blue more vividly? Is it a symptom of taking too much Viagra? Why does the satin bowerbird decorate the home it builds with blue objects?

Other artists have mused on the attraction of the colour blue and their thoughts are interrogated and interwoven here including Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen,  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Theory of Colours, and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Colour.

Margaret Perry’s adaptation is occasionally sexy. Our narrator ‘f*cks’ their lover for 6 hours straight and wants a ‘cock in every orifice’.

The effect of Whishaw, House of The Dragon’s D’Arcy, who also appeared with Whishaw in Against at the Almeida, and Kayla Meikle all voicing these desires gives this unusual piece a welcome queer feel.

Unfortunately, placing cameras between actors often stood behind their microphones creates a barrier between them and the audience. The use of filmed backdrops often with London locations also takes us out of this theatre and our shared space with this cast.

The closest production we’ve seen in terms of style to this would be Jamie Lloyd’s take on Pinter’s A Slight Ache and fans of the cast will love hearing the emphasis on our storytellers’ voices rather than their acting.

But it’s a cult piece with the occasional laugh which many may find absorbing yet offputting.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Royal Court Tickets
• Have you seen a Ben Whishaw show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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