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A review by skeletor_nyaaaa
Blu by David Hare, Virginia Grise
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I rarely rate anything so low, but I honestly couldn’t stand this play. I’ll start with what I liked and then get mean:
I think the production aspects are really clever! The jazz aspect of it and how the characters speak at the same time to show the kind of cycle Grise is talking about were interesting and clever.
I also liked the references to mythology, I had to do some extra reading to understand the references and I liked that.
HOWEVER, I have to ask… what are those references doing? I feel like this play has many many themes, but it doesn’t really say anything about any of them. It’s about the cycle of violence, machismo, sexuality, family, etc. sure, but what does it have to say about any of those things?
I also found it frustrating that there’s seemingly no thought for the people that Blu is sent to kill when he joins the military. Killing nameless, faceless Arabs is par for the course in most Western-made media, but I honestly really expected better from this play and this writer!!!! We get this whole play that humanizes marginalized people caught up in a terrible cycle of violence imposed upon them by oppressive forces, and then our titular character joins those oppressive forces—which would be fine on its own, except that there’s no acknowledgment that the exact same thing affects people in the Middle East….
I think the production aspects are really clever! The jazz aspect of it and how the characters speak at the same time to show the kind of cycle Grise is talking about were interesting and clever.
I also liked the references to mythology, I had to do some extra reading to understand the references and I liked that.
HOWEVER, I have to ask… what are those references doing? I feel like this play has many many themes, but it doesn’t really say anything about any of them. It’s about the cycle of violence, machismo, sexuality, family, etc. sure, but what does it have to say about any of those things?
I also found it frustrating that there’s seemingly no thought for the people that Blu is sent to kill when he joins the military. Killing nameless, faceless Arabs is par for the course in most Western-made media, but I honestly really expected better from this play and this writer!!!! We get this whole play that humanizes marginalized people caught up in a terrible cycle of violence imposed upon them by oppressive forces, and then our titular character joins those oppressive forces—which would be fine on its own, except that there’s no acknowledgment that the exact same thing affects people in the Middle East….