BLUE HEART

Nominated for 3 Off West End Awards
Best Production | Best Ensemble | Best Director

★★★★ Guardian ★★★★ Time Out ★★★★ Independent ★★★★Evening Standard ★★★★ Exeunt ★★★★ The Stage ★★★★ The Arts Desk

Nearly 20 years after its Royal Court premiere, the first major revival of two exhilarating one act plays by visionary playwright Caryl Churchill.

Heart’s Desire sees a family awaiting their daughter’s return from Australia, though in a series of alternative scenarios, the play collapses as it keeps veering off in unexpected and ridiculous directions.

Blue Kettle tells the story of conman Derek and the five women he misleads into believing he is their biological son. Try as he might, Derek’s plans are scuppered as the play is invaded by a virus.

In Churchill’s ever-inventive style, the plays pull apart language and structure in a way that is theatrically remarkable and fast paced, in a stirring yet truthful exploration of family and relationships.

Caryl Churchill is one of the country’s foremost contemporary playwrights. Her incredible career includes the plays Top Girls, Cloud Nine, A Number and Escaped Alone.

David Mercatali returns to the Orange Tree following his production of Alice Birch’s Little Light. He has directed the premieres of recent Philip Ridley plays Dark Vanilla Jungle, Radiant Vermin and Tonight With Donny Stixx.

“A fiendishly clever and surreal play, timed to perfection” Guardian

An Orange Tree Theatre and Tobacco Factory Theatres co-production

Estimated running time 1 hour 40 minutes, including interval

First produced by Out of Joint and the Royal Court Theatre at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds on 14 August 1997

With thanks to Adele Saunders, Sienna Brown, Tomas Caldon, Poppy Cove, Flo Davidson, Grace Davidson, Harriet Dexter, Elena Gonzalez, Oriana Hardingham, Tilly Hollywood, Ava John, Alexander Joyce, James Joyce, Pippa Lawler, Colette Leech, Heidi Poulter, Zoe Reid and Nancy Whitworth