Blue on Blue

When blockbusters like The Kite Runner and Charlie Wilson’s War are hitting the big screens with such high acclaim, a show about Afghanistan sets itself a lofty bar to step up to. And, as Khaled Hosseini and Siba Shakib make the international bestsellers’ lists, audiences are seeking fresh and meaningful perspectives on a situation often treated impersonally by the media. Blue on Blue tries, but fails, to gain such insight.

The show aspires to explore the place of humanity amidst conflict through the story of a chance encounter between Lee, the blonde and buxom American lieutenant, and Ahmed, the Mujahedin rebel. But as their relationship is unfolded, it wearyingly becomes a cliché just as saccharine as the premise upon which it began. Rather predictably, Lee and Ahmed are made to run the gauntlet of cross-cultural romance, dodging such obstacles as Ignorance-of-respective-religious-traditions, Gender-related-disagreement, and Ideological-and-moral-differences. Then, about two thirds of the way through, they decide that none of these topics which initially merited such venomous debate really matter, because love conquers all. Or something.

While Sarah Hannah and Arran Shanti perform their individual roles convincingly, the sudden transition from an initial stalemate of feisty disdain versus self-righteous distaste to uninhibited passion fails to portray human relationships with great accuracy, let alone give insight into the wider political and cultural issues this production presumes to address. Direction which results in the actors often having their back to a third of their audience makes the dialogue yet more difficult to follow. Short of the cast having joined hands for a closing chorus of ‘Melting Pot’, this play could not have done such complex issues less justice.