Review: BLUE/ORANGE, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes

Joe Penhall's incendiary play, Blue/Orange, was garlanded with awards after its 2000 debut at The National Theatre, winning the Olivier, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard awards for Best New Play in 2001. It has been revived many times and endures as its themes remain both prescient and urgent. Now the tiny OSO Arts Centre in Barnes plays host, and it is as intense and provocative as ever.

Patient Christopher is about to leave a mental health facility, but his medic, Dr Flaherty, has concerns that he is not yet well enough to be released. She seeks advice from her consultant and mentor Dr Smith, who says with confidence that Christopher needs to be let back into the community, for his own sake, but also that of the overly stretched hospital department. What follows is a powerful battle of wills, which raises issues of institutional racism, medical egotism and the ongoing question of how to best care for those who suffer mental health crises under a health system straining at the seams.

Andre Bullock is totally convincing as Christopher, a young man with many challenges, including seeing oranges that are blue and believing his father is Idi Amin. Bullock inhabits this role with an incredibly physical performance: his body reflecting the constant motion in his mind as his fingers jitter, his foot taps and he cannot seem to decide whether to sit or stand. He also lets us see glimpses of the turmoil of Christopher's mind; fearful, lonely, bullish yet intensely anxious with rapid-fire delivery. It's a truly brilliant performance.

Muireann Gallen takes on the traditionally male role of the newly qualified Dr Flaherty with heart. At first blinded by her concern for her patient, Gallen shows the seemingly impossible conflict and hard choices that must be made as a mental health doctor. Gallen is headstrong and brave against the assertions of Dr Smith, but later shows biases and strong prejudices of her own. Her sex adds another layer to the production, as the resonance of an older, professionally superior man effectively bullying a junior female is hard to ignore.

Gallen creates uncomfortable sparks with Ciaran Corsar, who is wonderfully dislikable as the arrogant, swaggering Dr Smith. Cavalier in his attitudes, yet highly experienced, Gallen shows a man who is blatantly needy for the status of Professor and all the trappings that brings, but also so blithely convinced of his own diagnosis that he fails to see any alternative. This is a man who knows the system and therefore knows which battles he can and cannot win.

Penhall's writing suceeds so well as the audience has to constantly shift who it roots for: Dr Flaherty is young, enthusiastic and really seems to care for her patient, but Dr Smith, despite his arrogance, makes valid points about Christopher's need for liberty at the risk of him being institutionalised. But at the heart of this is the patient, who is bounced between the medics in an increasingly unethical and uncomfortable manner.

The play is a taut three-hander and relies on fluidity and strong interaction from the actors. Lydia Sax's astute and thoughtful direction in the round gives a voyeuristic and necessary claustrophobic feel. Sax keeps the 2000 setting, so despite the smoking and references to a Blairite housing boom, it feels depressingly current in references to a mental health system unable to properly care for individual patients.

Dr Smith's interest in Christopher increases when he sees him as a potential research subject for his latest book. He believes that Christopher's race and 'where he comes from' is a factor in his poor mental health and thinks he can find a cure for 'black pychosis'. His attitude is blithe, his words crude, but contrasts effectively with Dr Flaherty who flatly fails to see the connection, constantly asserting that where Christopher comes from is simply a housing estate in Shepherd's Bush.

Even though mental health is much less taboo in 2026, today Black people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white people. It is sobering that these statistics remain. Care in the Community remains a contentious topic and the recent tragic incidents such as the 2023 Nottingham attacks by Valdo Calocane, a man with a history of severe mental health issues, show that the system still needs radical reform.

Raphaé Memon's stark set gives us a screwed-down table and two chairs, an astray and a bowl of oranges. But in reality, this production needs nothing more than these three great performances and Penhall's brilliant script to really fly. Thought-provoking and powerful, this is a cracking revival.

Blue/Orange is at OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 10 May