The Blue Room: A Play in Ten Intimate Acts

In 1900, Arthur Schnitzler circulated a series of dramatic sketches he had written entitled Reigen. He claimed he hadn’t written them to be put on the stage. He felt they were unstageable, largely because of their rawness. They were closet drama, to be read and appreciated by the enlightened, not the prudish. Reigen were a series of sketches: in each one a man and a woman met, talk and have sex, but the actors (there are only two, a man and a woman; they play the different characters in the scenes in sequence) rotate in circle from beginning to end so that at the end of each love-making, one actor leaves and the one left behind moves on to sex with another person. The open sexuality of the play was shocking to the people of Schnitzler’s time, but no more than the cynicism about love it displayed: these weren’t plays about love but about sex, and betrayal and deceit (including self-deception) cam along with the lovemaking. The play was finally presented on stage in 1921 and it created the very stir Schnitzler had feared it. In 1950, the great French filmmaker Max Ophuls made a movie of it, under the title La Ronde and that’s the title it’s usually known by today.Hare says of his version that he “freely adapted” it from Schnitzler. It’s been a long time since I read La Ronde, but this version seems to match up –in content and tone—with what I remember from the original. This is a hundred-and-ten-year-old play that still shocks, it’s still to the nth degree, the perfect antidote to the American love comedy. How many plays for you know that have that effect so long after they’re written? Lear, Woyzeck, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, but what else? Brrr!

One of the best plays I have every read... contemporary plays. Recommend to anyone wanting a look at the hypocrisy associated with modern life and love.

The play is structured like this - Character A hooks up with Character B in scene 1. In scene 2 Character B hooks up with Character C. In scene 3 Character C hooks up with... you get the idea.Here's an example of what I mean by 'hook up':Girl - Watch out, or we'll both be in the water ...Cab Driver - Great ...Girl - We'll both be in the water.Music engulfs them. The lights go out. A projected slide reads: THREE MINUTES.***Light returns. The GIRL is lying on the ground. The CAB DRIVER is kneeling beside her, his hands on his knees.The same thing, more or less, happens in each of the ten scenes. You get two scenes with each character. In the first a character will act one way and in the next they'll act a different way. For example, in one scene a politician is with his wife and he's serious and sincere, and then in the next he's with a coke snorting model and he's talking slick. That's about it. The Blue Room is random people talking just before and just after sex.When I got this I thought it sounded cheeky and offbeat but actually reading it was a let down. Pretty much nothing happens. Yeah, you get to see people committing adultery, patronizing prostitutes, etc, but since you don't know anything about them, who cares what they do?... Actually, you learn a little about them: the actress was flippant, the cab driver was crass, the au pair naive, etc. There is some characterization, but it's pretty weak.It moves along briskly and I give it points for being different, but overall it's dull and about as risque as the Saturday night movie on Cinemax.

David Hare's adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde" is nothing short of amazing. The twisting strand of relationships that course through the scenes is filled with mirror images of ourselves. Either in the lives we lead, what we invision in our mind, or in the world we see around us. There are so many difference's between the ten characters, but what makes it truly interesting is when you realize just what might be the same about them.This play is a first rate pick!

I for one adored this play. Did not see the Broadyway play but from the reviews I heard it only cheapened this excellent work by David Hare. It goes into not the act of sex but the before and after scences displaying the casualness of sex in our society. Definately something worth thinking about. Recommend Skylark by David Hare as well.

A fair short play open to interpretation and creativity to the maxHighly recommend to others for study in education

A good follow-on from La Ronde - does not make sense on its own! Unusual, complex narratives. The characters are alive and very well described. A good read!

Amazing

Ho amato questo testo fin dalle sue prime pagine... L'ho divorato in un solo boccone e sto meditando di acquistare la sua versione cartacea in copertina rigida. Perché non esiste anche un dvd con l'opera teatrale? Sarebbe interessante rivederlo.