For Washingtonians, “Blue/Orange” might, at first glance, appear as an allusion to the color-coded pair of Metrorail lines that populate our local rapid transit system.
It’s not.
Joe Penhall’s intimate drama takes its unusual title from the psychotic illusions of an Afro-British patient on the cusp of completing his 28 days of rehabilitation in a London mental hospital. Christopher (Cedric Mays) believes the piece of bright citrus set in front of him is blue, when in fact it’s an orange. Aside from seeing common fruit in exotic hues, he also believes that he’s the exiled love child of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada, that skinheads are half-dead “zombies” and that Coke is actually good for him.
Enter Christopher’s rookie doctor Bruce (Aubrey Deeker), an empathetic and careful soul who has invited his mentor Robert (Michael Tolaydo) in to observe his patient’s exit interview. Aside from challenging Christopher’s notion that caffeine is healthy, Bruce also has second thoughts about releasing a patient who may suffer from schizophrenia. But Robert, a smarmy senior consultant with an agenda all of his own, challenges his charge with notions that Bruce may be offering an ethnocentric analysis, enabling institutionalized racism in an overcrowded health care system with very few beds.
» The Highlights
Jeremy Skidmore directs an explosive trio of actors at Theater Alliance in Penhall’s fascinating examination of how the prickly politics of race factor in to the diagnosis of psychological disorders. Whether or not Christopher should be treated as a patient with borderline personality disorder, a paranoid schizophrenic, a victim of racist psychiatry methods or simply as a neurotic jackass, Skidmore tempers Penhall’s drama with equal parts solution and suspense.
» The Lowlights
Though Penhall offers a rich, compelling debate that speeds along a dangerous track, the intellectual dimensions of “Blue/Orange” seem vicariously one-sided. There is a very real human disappointment pricking at the heart of Penhall’s play, but it sticks to the territory surrounding the issues, never quite puncturing an internal artery.
» The Cast
Deeker is eloquently exasperated as the younger doctor who is urged to “follow the path of least resistance” against his moral code, and here he is wonderfully conscionable as he struggles between the personal and the professional.
Tolaydo’s Robert is an intimidating force of bureaucracy shielded behind a white coat, and as he argues that Christopher is part of a “culturally oppressed minority,” you can almost hear the tennis balls racketing back and forth at his privileged white country club.
As for Mays, who gave such an interesting performance earlier this year in “Insurrection: Holding History,” he navigates though Christopher’s murky waters with an arrogant sense of confidence — an unsettling trait for an inpatient with such a storied past.
» Munch on This
A gripping drama with bite, “Blue/Orange” is an amusing snapshot of English ideology toward race as it relates to psychological dysfunction in adults. The world may be “as blue as an orange,” but for patients affected by racial arguments in psychiatry, the issues aren’t always divided by black and white.
‘Blue/Orange’
By Joe Penhall
Directed by Jeremy Skidmore
Through June 10
» Venue: H Street Playhouse, 1365 H St. NE
» Tickets: $26
» Info: 866-811-4111,
www.theateralliance.com
