Event

The Blue Room

Theatre /verv/ is back, and for there first show of the season they pick up right where they left off, presenting edgy provocative theatre in creative and different ways. /verv/ is launching there inaugural season at South of Broadway Theatre Company with David Hare's "The Blue Room". Hare loosely adapted "The Blue Room" from Arthur Schnitzler's 1900 play "Der Reigen", more commonly known as "La Ronde". In Hare's adaptation a daisy chain of ten sexual encounters between five men and five women is played out in ten scenes by two actors (Nicole Kidman and Iain Glenn played them in the London and NY shows). Schnitzler originally had a different actor playing each role, although he never intended it to be performed, calling them unprintable, only intending them to be read by friends. When the play was finally produced in 1921 in Vienna, it was shut down by the police and Schnitzler was prosecuted for obsenity, while the actors had to undergo a 6 day trial. In 1950, Max Ophuls turned "Reigen" into a film titled "La Ronde", which was nominated for two academy awards. This was followed in 1964 by another version starring Jane Fonda.
Director JC Conway is putting his own little spin on "The Blue Room", by going back to a cast of ten instead of two, as well as filming half the scenes. "It's an intimate look at ten different encounters, and I thought that each actor would bring something different to each role. The juxtaposition of the filmed scenes and the staged scenes also seemed like an interesting way to look at intimacy" remarks JC.