A year ago tonight, Dance The Colour Blue played to its last audience. My first professionally produced play was an entirely unexpected affair…as well as something of a revelatory experience!
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There is a poem which threads through Dance The Colour Blue, refering back to The Odyssey. A plea from Penelope to be heard. Although, thanks to Homer, we can never be sure we are hearing this enigmatic character clearly.
The poem appears here in full. The third stanza is added for completeness. It did not feature in the play.
Penelope
Once on a overcast morning, I asked the messenger Hermes
Is time a dancing boy whose legs move bright with speed?
Tenderly taking my hand, he affirmed my familiar fate
Denizens, five score men, claiming a tenure of nature that’s yours
Me; tears stain my face entering more deeply into my heart
Swiftly days pass, Odysseus, for the dark chases them away
Three years last you laid by my side, must yet I prepare for three more?
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Barfly Don didn’t much care for them…but here were the sounds on the jukebox in Dance The Colour Blue:
Home At Last - Steely Dan
Counting Backwards - Throwing Muses
I Want More - Can
Monkey Gone to Heaven - Pixies
Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp
Reelin’ In The Years - Steely Dan
Dress You Up - Madonna
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Tom’s Diner - Suzanne Vega
Lovelight - ABBA
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Looking back on the run of Dance The Colour Blue is like recalling a dream: you’re convinced it happened, you just can’t point to or touch it. What I do know is…the production was smooth…the cast were exquisite…the audiences were appreciative… and the direction was flawless. And even though the world views everyone in its same unwavering regard, there is a change in my perspective as I look round. It was a beautiful production. A professional production. And that is…something.
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Tonight was my first ‘first night’ as a writer sitting in the audience. Usually I’m part of the stage management. That’s the nature of fringe theatre. But as part of a professional production, my role is just ‘the writer’. More time. I’d say ‘more time to relax’ …but that’s stretching it! I needn’t have worried, for in the hands of director Olivia Millar-Ross, and actors Habiba Saleh, Rory Grant, Billy Mack, Dani Heron, Nicola Docherty and Kareem Nasif, the play was always in the safest of hands.
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Today we had the dress rehearsal of Dance The Colour Blue…and…
We’re ready to go!
For the last 3 weeks, director Olivia Millar-Ross has worked with the actors in order to create a world that is caught somewhere in the mid-late 90s. It was a time of optimism: a decrepit government ready for the scrapheap, a century of conflict breathing its last; and new music scenes appropriating the past. I won’t say what happened next in the real world. Best for us to remain with Nicky, Mikey, Liz, Suzy, Pete and Don in The Everlasting Arms…where the music is good, the beer flows, and the banter is better.
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It’s a new experience for me: to occasionally sit at the back of a studio whilst a play develops before your eyes. It’s a privilege too. To be the writer watching the emergence of an interpretation of your work. Director Olivia Millar-Ross is doing a truly superb job of bringing Dance The Colour Blue to life. I’m not exactly sure what I expected but I am learning a lot that will be useful when next I direct a play.
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Today was the first day of rehearsals for Dance The Colour Blue. This is possibly the calmest sentence I’ll write…for it went as well as anyone could’ve hoped for!
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The script’s perfect! Of course it is. Why would it not be? It’s the best version of it there’s been. Until you reach the Read Through session, that is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful opportunity to have professional actors read your work, bring life and nuance to your words. And that’s when it hits you: the script is not perfect. It’s far from perfect. Pass the binoculars…we’ve some distance yet to go.
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