North West Theatre

The Bluest Blue

Paul Osborne
Old Bomb Theatre Company
26 Jul 10 to 01 Aug 10
New Century House
Part of: 24:7 Theatre Festival

A comic and compelling tale of loss and desire, stretching from the tourist traps of York to a Barnsley housing estate. A young bookseller is tackled by a predatory traffic warden, and a street cleaner sweeps up the pieces. But is the ticket-toting enforcer really who she says she is?

Nothing listed

Although the whole story of the first scene has become a bit of a cliché, it is very nicely written with some lovely, believable dialogue... The second scene... is just there for a bit of clumsy exposition and feels like filling, but then when we flash back to his final confrontation... we get another nicely-written scene... some really nice performances from Tom Gladstone... and from Hannah Dee... Alan Booty is fine as Stevie, although the character is rather underwritten and doesn't really need to be there at all... an interesting story well told with some very good performances...
British Theatre Guide
Raquel is played captivatingly by Hannah Dee... compliments Tom Gladstone’s more serious, awkward and inhibited performance as Felix... The third character, Stevie, played by Alan Booty, is the least developed, acting as a sounding board for Felix’s ramblings... I wonder why the narrative could not be linear and whether the character of Stevie is even necessary... I would rather have left with a little more hope than I did...
What's On Stage (Rating: 4/5)
In the main it succeeds in exploring this theme in a subtle way... When [the characters] are used to portray a point of view the show is less successful... The mood shift, from broad comedy to stark reality and then wistful regret, is so disjointed that it feels contrived. However, the strengthens of Osborne’s writing exceed the slight weaknesses... [Tom] Gladstone is excellent... a blazing performance from [Hannah] Dee who steals every scene she is in... a warm and compassionate play with some excellent performances.
The Public Reviews (Rating: 3/5)
Paul Osborne’s play sparks along, driven by the engaging Hannah Dee as Raquel. And Tom Gladstone plays the reserved Felix splendidly... But when Dee leaves the stage the tempo drops – and the play peters out.
City Life (Rating: 3/5)