Blue/Orange
eBook - PDF

Blue/Orange

  1. 191 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Blue/Orange

About this book

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.

Award-winning writer Joe Penhall first rose to prominence in 1994 with his Royal Court play Some Voices and he has been described by the Financial Times as 'one of the finest playwrights of his generation.' Blue/Orange is an accessible and vibrant play, which explores a number of important issues and which makes it a good choice to study. This includes themes of race and representation, sanity and insanity (and in particular the social structures, stigma and complexity surrounding schizophrenia), as well the political context of New Labour and spin, and questions of prejudice and difference.

This Student Edition features expert and helpful annotation, including a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well as a list of suggested reading and questions for further study and a review of performance history.

Information

Publisher
Methuen Drama
Year
2013
Print ISBN
9781408140918
Edition
1
eBook ISBN
9781472515537
Topic
Literature
Subtopic
British Drama
Index
Literature
their 
patient 
reflects 
on 
the 
system 
as 
a 
whole. 
[ 
. 
. 
. 
]
Psychiatric 
practitioners 
may 
or 
may 
not 
see 
similarities
with 
their 
own 
working 
lives, 
but 
for 
the 
uninitiated, 
the
programme 
should 
provoke 
some 
serious 
reflection 
on 
how
mental 
health 
conditions 
are 
diagnosed 
and 
treated.
In 
her 
final 
paragraph 
she 
pointed 
to 
the 
piece’s 
wider 
aims
and 
concerns:
For 
those 
people 
who 
are 
disillusioned 
by 
the 
approaching
general 
election, 
tonight’s 
programme 
should 
be 
a 
shot 
in
the 
arm. 
Penhall’s 
play 
is 
a 
timely 
and 
provocative 
reminder
of
why 
policy 
matters, 
and 
of
how 
politics 
affects 
the 
lives
of
some 
of
society’s 
most 
vulnerable 
people.
Despite 
its 
specificities 
of
time, 
place 
and 
context 
– 
or 
perhaps,
in 
part, 
because 
of
them 
–
Blue
/
Orange
has, 
then, 
proved 
to 
be
one 
of
the 
most 
performed 
plays 
of
the 
past 
twenty 
years.
That 
it 
has 
done 
so 
tells 
us 
about 
the 
continued 
significance 
of
issue-led, 
argument-driven 
plays 
in 
the 
British 
theatre.
However, 
as 
O’Hara 
suggests, 
its 
impact 
lies 
as 
much 
in 
its
underlying 
arguments 
about 
language, 
power, 
politics 
and
policy 
as 
it 
does 
in 
its 
explicit 
points 
about 
race 
and 
mental
health. 
Commentary 
liii

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. Joe Penhall
  5. Plot
  6. Commentary
  7. Further Reading
  8. BLUE/ORANGE
  9. Notes
  10. Questions for Further Study

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