Blue Surge

Synopsis

Curt and Doug are small-town cops in Midwest America charged with closing down the local brothel. But after an encounter with its occupants, Sandy and Heather, their job suddenly becomes anything but clear-cut. Having spent just three months in the brothel, Sandy seems to have a chance of a new life, but as events start to get out of control, what is right or wrong becomes increasingly blurred and they must all face up to what they have become... Set against challenging questions about the class struggle in America today, this moving love story between cops and hookers is a tale of expectations missed and overcome, a play about the narratives we all write for ourselves and how fortune and single moments can change our lives, as Curt and Sandy both try to get a foothold in the American dream of a house, a job, a life and a relationship with another human being.

Our Review:

Andrew Girvan - 16 August 2011

Rebecca Gilman's 2001 play Blue Surge builds from the slightly unlikely premise of two frustrated small town policemen falling for a pair of "massage therapists" after a bungled brothel sting into a dark and gritty examination of the tensions present in American class structure.

Playing on the title of Duke Ellington's jazz number "Blue Serge" Gilman has created a five-strong cast of characters who have most definitely been cut from rough cloth. Che Walker's production is set against a minimalist set from Georgia Lowe, the scenes flowing together surprisingly fluidly as cast members fight to reset the centre bench from massage parlour to home to bar to office.

Clare Latham as young prostitute Sandy brings a startling vulnerability to the role when needed with coyness and tension also present in her relationship with cop Curt (James Hillier).

Hillier is impressive as a police detective who finds himself closer to the prostitute than the arti...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 13 August 2011:

I’m puzzled that this fine play has taken 10 years to get here. Four of playwright Rebecca Gilman’s other plays have made swifter transfers to the Royal Court and this is at least as good as them. The play opens as a ‘massage parlour’ is raided by two cops. Their incompetence means prosecutions don’t follow, but what does is two unlikely relationships. Doug’s with Heather is all lust and Curt with Sandy more friendship, though it’s this one that is the heart of the play and the one which has most consequences. To say I was surprised how it turned out is a compliment to the writing, but I won’t spoil it. The play benefits from the intimacy of the Finborough and Che Walker’s direction is subtle and sensitive. James Hillier and Clare Latham as Curt and Sandy, who have to carry the emotional weight of the play, are both terrific. Alexander Gulney and Samantha Coughlan, as Doug and Heather, have to make very different and more transformational journeys and do so extremely well. Kelly Burke provides fine support as Curt’s girlfriend Beth. The American accents are excellent, without benefit of the dialect coaches bigger theatres employ with nowhere near as good results – though Clare Latham is a native speaker! This is a cleverly structured play with excellent characterisation and its beautifully performed. What more can you ask for? The Finborough on fine form again....

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