The Blue Room, presented by Solocat Productions, opens March 25; plays Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2 pm’ through May 2. Tickets: $30. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles; 310.477.2055 or plays411.net/blueroom.
What will one do for sex? Lie? Cheat? Pay for it? Tell the truth? There is an innate human need to connect – but at what cost? In 1900, Austrian writer Doctor Arthur Schnitzler wrote Reigen – an exploration of sexual morals and class distinctions depicted through a daisy chain of sexual encounters. This piece was ahead of its time and Schnitzler was even prosecuted for obscenity. Today, however, we’re much more open about sex. David Hare’s 1998 adaptation The Blue Room sets this controversial play in a modern day city.
Elina de Santos
“Come for the sex, stay for the longing,” jokes director Elina de Santos. It’s really about how “we long for each other and what we will do to get that kind of contact. The lies we tell. And the lies that are accepted. In the end we all have to connect. Otherwise, why be here?” She adds, “And part of our connection is our sexuality. It’s part of our human need.”
De Santos speaks of what it means to expose oneself. “It’s about being vulnerable. What we’re willing to expose is what people come to the theatre for. We see the vulnerability that comes with nakedness, with the raw need to have another person, to be in close contact. The raw expression of that need.” She laughs, “Sometimes it’s with clothes on and sometimes it’s not!”
De Santos and her cast of two definitely learned a lot about each other during the rehearsal process. Maybe a little too much. “We have become very intimate,” laughs de Santos. “I have heard it all!”
There are only two actors, Christina Dow as The Woman and Christian Anderson as The Man, but there are 10 different characters – all of whom come from different walks of life. With Hare being a British playwright the class system plays an important role. “Class for the British is very different than it is here,” she says. “For us it’s all about money. We really translated [class] into what advantages these people had in order to get the opportunity to have a better position in life.”
Here’s an interesting story. “When Schnitzler wrote the play,” says de Santos, “Freud was writing all his research and actually didn’t want to meet Schnitzler because they were writing about the same things and thought he was his doppelganger!”
She continues, “Although we have developed a lot more about psychology and sexuality, at the basest form it’s really about human nature. That’s why people do plays, or art of any kind. We’re interested in human nature and why people do what they do.”
This exploration of human nature is what makes it exciting to go to the theatre. “That moment that’s private you see only when people know what it is to be that other person. Those are the moments I look for when I’m directing; to create a story able to draw people in so they have an experience watching it. Have an experience of ‘wow.’ It’s a visceral experience.
“I seldom see successful theatre that just wants to jog our brains. I don’t think that is what it’s about. It didn’t start out that way with the Greeks. They weren’t interested in your head. They were interested in much lower in the body,” she expresses.
De Santos feels it is her job as the director to create the elements for audiences to have a real experience. “I would like to see people in their seats, having private experiences that might come up as their own secrets.”
What excites de Santos the most about this production it the way the play explores the risks we take to have human contact. She elaborates, “At the end of Arthur Miller’s autobiography he says, ‘we’re all connected, even the trees.’ That line gives me chills. To know what that means at the deepest level…that we all are connected but to actually take the risk to connect is what is courageous about human beings.”
In short, “that you go out and try to get it. Even when it’s bad or deemed wrong you just do it.”
Christina Dow and Christian Anderson
She continues, “That’s another exciting thing about the play – to suspend judgment about people and how they connect. If you can suspend judgment and just see what they’re doing, it’s pretty exciting. This play isn’t about cheating or what’s in the tabloids; it’s really about the risks people are taking to have some kind of contact that is more important than their safety, their status quo, their perceived idea of who they should be with.”
De Santos really commends her actors. “They’re both exciting wonderful actors. They’re able to do accents and characterizations that are subtle yet distinct. It’s been wonderful to watch them both to jump in and take on all these characters and to go to places that are uncomfortable.”
The production is in the Odyssey’s Theatre Two, which is de Santos’ favorite theatre there. “This space is incredibly intimate because of the L-shape configuration. It also makes for interesting staging. The actors really have to focus on what they’re doing,” she laughs, “and hope to god the director makes it look good!”
The set has a very uptown kind of look. It’s very theatrical. It’s important to give just the essentials of what is needed for each particular place, where things happen she explains.
“The variety [of the scenes is] immense but what is essential about each of them is that two people get together.”
And that’s really what sex is all about – two people coming together, no matter the cost.
Feature image of de Santos, Christian S. Anderson and Christina Dow by Adam Flemming. Story images of de Santos, and production photo of Anderson and Dow by Christopher Moscatiello. Article by Ashley Steed.
