Blue Hour is beautiful

Leave it to David Mamet to elevate mundane, everyday American English to the level of poetry. The UCDP’s production of The Blue Hour truly blew me away—the lights alone would have been worth watching, but when talented acting and skilful direction bring a masterful text to life, it is truly a treat. The play was presented as part of the ongoing inaugural University of Toronto Festival of the Arts.

The play is a series of vignettes set in New York City about a time called, funnily enough, the blue hour, that time just after sunset where the sky is a perfect, beautiful blue. The interaction between actors Sonia Lindner and Thomas Davis in the opening scene was hilarious, as was the following scene with Lindner and Gwynne Phillips in a closing department store.

The scene between JP Bevilacqua and Davis as two businessmen forced into awkward conversation on a commuter train was perhaps the most resonant— expressing the annoyance at dealing with those you could not care less about.

Most touching however was the concluding scene between Bevilacqua and Davis. The loneliness of the two men in a subway station was so understated and tense that the audience was dead silent until the scene faded to black, the theatre erupting in applause.

My only regret is that I did not have time to see the other shows, Methusalem: Or, the Eternal Bourgeois and Bully, that ran with The Blue Hour. If this show indicates of the level of talent in this year’s UCDP batch, I would no doubt have been delighted.