Blue (Multiplay Drama)

Product Information

The cast for Edition 6 include Marion Bailey, Cian Binchy, Amanda Coogan, Tim Crouch, Louisa Harland, Lara Grace Ilori, Rose Lewenstein, Maimuna Memon, Rachael Merry, Nando Messias, Sule Rimi, Grace Savage, Dorcas Sebuyange, Michelle Tiwo, Alan Williams, Millicent Wong and Basil the Dog. Someone Stares at a Dog for a Few Minutes, and Has a Think About It All by Simon Longman (The Long Listen) With both the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse nurturing and developing new talent across decades, 2024 will see their award-winning Young Everyman Playhouse programme going from strength to strength, with a Young People and Community Festival in July. The play explores how AI and automation are changing the world of work and at the heart of the play we have a “machine” with the power to choose the scenes played by our three actors. It creates a sense of ‘dare’ for the performers and the audience and I’m really excited to see it play out on stage.” I suppose the short answer is that various people that I love and care about have had different interactions with mental-health institutions. So, I wanted to explore that, the small insights I’d had and go further and see where that took me.

Written by Tasha Dowd, a graduate of the Young Everyman Playhouse Writers programme, the play is the winner of the 2023 Homotopia Writers’ Award: For younger children, there’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea (12 to 17 February), Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book (9 to 13 April) and Tom Fletcher’s There’s A Monster in Your Show (28 May to 1 June). Edition 6 explores the strange and contradictory relationship between a closed theatre building and the world outside; asking questions about why we gather together and who we might have lost when we do so again.

Alert

However, it’s important to stress that Blueis a play and not a documentary, it doesn’t need to be as there are loads of brilliant documentaries about the state of mental health services in the UK. In BlueI was trying to get closer to the feeling, the emotive content of what modern mental-health care can feel like, rather than a factual recounting of a specific mental-health unit.

Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse's 2024 season comprises world premières, classic plays and projects with their associate companies, celebrating 60 years since the Everyman was founded and 10 years since its current building opened. Set in Liverpool as the AIDS epidemic threatens a generation, Tell Me How It Ends is about two queer lives intertwining as they each learn to love living – finding the joy in being bound together during a time of growing uncertainty. Comedy nights include Babatunde Aleshe: Babahood(24 February), Jon Courtenay: Bigger(5 April), Griff Rhys Jones: The Cat’s Pyjamas (30 April), Tom Davis: Underdog(4 May), Rosie Holt: That’s Politainment (25 May) and Danny Davies (11 September). Plus there’s poetry from Hollie McNish: The Lobster Tour (27 June).

Keep up to date

At the heart of the Everyman season are three homegrown productions, two of which come from writers supported through the theatres’ playwright programmes. I have a friend, Joe Abel, who I knew worked in a mental-health setting but I’d never really discussed it any real depth with him. When I started working on BlueI was primarily looking at it from the viewpoint of a character who has been placed in a mental-health unit but wanted to know what it was like to work in one as well. As soon as I spoke to him about his work, a whole complex world was opened up to me that I knew nothing about. I found it fascinating, not least because it became clear to me that Joe was doing a job that I didn’t have the ability, or the fortitude, to do. It didn’t hurt that he’s a very insightful and articulate human as well. So, he was my main source of help for the play and then there was the usual watching of documentaries and reading of books. It will be directed by Chris Sonnex, Artistic Director of Cardboard Citizens (an Associate Company at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse):

The Playhouse season also includes Unfortunate, a musical telling the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch (5 to 9 March); Pilot Theatre's contemporary version of Orpheus in The Song for Ella Grey (13 to 16 March); Curve Theatre’s My Beautiful Laundrette (26 to 30 March); imitating the dog's Frankenstein (17 to 20 April); Tim Rice: I Know Him So Well, My Life in Musicals (2 May); Showstopper: The Improvised Musical (9 to 11 May); and Drop the Dead Donkey the Reawakening (14 to 18 May). As well as its own productions and collaborations, ensuring the best in UK theatre and entertainment comes to the city, the theatres also announce a visiting programme including the return of their co-production with Nottingham Playhouse and UK Productions of The Kite Runner (23 to 27 April), which since last seen in Liverpool has been on Broadway. The Playhouse season also includes Unfortunate, a musical telling the untold story of Ursula the Sea Witch (5 to 9 March); Pilot Theatre return with a contemporary version of Orpheus in The Song for Ella Grey (13 to 16 March); Curve Theatre’s My Beautiful Laundrette (26 to 30 March), directed by Nicole Behan from Liverpool’s Paperwork Theatre;; imitating the dog create a new Frankenstein (17 to 20 April); Tim Rice: I Know Him So Well, My Life in Musicals (2 May); Showstopper: The Improvised Musical (9 to 11 May); and Drop the Dead Donkey the Reawakening (14 to 18 May);Munrow challenges the assumption that dementia is worse for those close to the patient than the sufferer themselves. "If someone broke their leg, they would be in pain," Simon reasons. "If someone's mind breaks, wouldn't you think they're in pain as well?" The short, staccato scenes seem to echo the distortions and disorientation of the disease: conversations are generally held at cross-purposes, or directly contradict each other, reminding us that collective truth is rarely more than an aggregate of fallible reminiscences. Work experience notwithstanding, this is not an autobiographical piece and the young Ben of the story who runs away to Liverpool from London to escape we-know-not-what, is not Ward Munrow who went from London to Liverpool to study drama at John Moore's University. He remained in the area, and it was The Liverpool Everyman's young writers programme, from which he graduated last year, that fostered the development of this, his first full length play. Sam Millard plays the young runaway Ben. His performance grew on me as he seemed to develop confidence, revealing the vulnerability behind this sullen teenager, struggling with his conscience. Kathryn Worth plays the police officer with strength and compassion and supports as the doctor and Jeryl Burgess is salt-of-the-earth Rose and supports in other roles.