David Byrne glides rather than explodes into his new position as artistic director of the Royal Court. The first major play under his aegis is a mild surprise from the man who at the New Diorama brought on to the stage the addictive high jinks of Operation Mincemeat and the melancholy grace of For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy. Katie Mitchell’s production of Bluets is cool and accomplished. More intriguing than disturbing. Scattered with stardom: Ben Whishaw appears alongside Emma D’Arcy and Kayla Meikle.
Bluets brings a mood and technique unfamiliar to the Court – and the question of what counts as new writing. Developed at Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, it is an adaptation by Margaret Perry of Maggie Nelson’s brooding 2009 memoir. Perry has trimmed and reordered Nelson’s thoughts on the colour blue – its aesthetic allure, its emotional tug – which include reactions to the end of a love affair and to a friend’s catastrophic accident. This is autobiography steered by an obsession that has something in common with religion and (perhaps not so different) conspiracy theory.
