Clive Russell as Derek Hodges in Touching the Blue
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Five Reasons to See... Touching the Blue

Clive Russell, the actor at the helm of the one-man-show Touching the Blue by Joe Wenborne, names the five best reasons to catch his show at the Fringe. Touching the Blue runs from 5 to 29 August at 15.30 in the Drawing Room in Assembly@George St.

1. It’s short…

…but not on emotion, humour or any of the other elements that make a good play. Touching the Blue is beautifully concise – you’ll be back out on George St within the hour.

2. It’s in a brilliant central venue

And not only is Assembly@George St very central, it also celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, so it’s nice to be part of the programme for that. I haven’t performed on stage since 2006, so the idea of doing a play where I’m alone in front of an audience every afternoon, is both fascinating and scary.

3. It’s both comic and tragic

When I first read the script for Touching the Blue, I found the character of Derek Hodges fascinating and that’s thanks to the writing, which first drew me to the play. In life, humour and sadness are often closely entwined; the best writers understand this, and I feel that in creating Derek Joe Wenborne has really achieved this.

4. Everyone can relate to it

Although the central character is a snooker player, on a deeper level, the play focuses on a situation that people from all walks of life will be able to recognise. As an actor, it’s those elements of the character that I’ve focused on bringing out – Which is just as well really, as I’m not much of a snooker player. I’m playing a man who’s supposed to be the best snooker player in the world, but the first time I picked up the cue in rehearsals, I spent three minutes trying to screw the wrong end together.

5. It’s funny and sad, it’s about a man looking back on the car wreck of his life, it’s short and it’s in a brilliant central venue…

… that pretty much sums it up in a sentence!

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