Blue Now

 

If I lose half my sight, will my vision be halved? – Derek Jarman

 

Blue was Derek Jarman’s final film, completed shortly before his death in 1994. A single unchanging shot of celestial blue is accompanied by a kaleidoscopic soundtrack of voices and music, and we hear Jarman reflecting on his own AIDS-related illnesses, on his mortality, and on loved ones lost to the virus. As AIDS progressively steals his sight, he searches for a vision that ‘transcends the solemn geography of human limits.’

 

Reimagined as a one-off live event, Blue Now will bring together an incredible live cast and a new score by Simon Fisher Turner, creator of the original soundtrack, performs the new live score created in collaboration with cellist and composer Lucy Railton. Blue Now’s cast includes actor Russell Tovey, poets Joelle Taylor and Jay Bernard and writer and performer Travis Alabanza who together deliver Jarman’s powerful words.

 

Blue Now is a unique opportunity to reflect on the impact of the AIDS epidemic, and the importance of creating space for compassion, rage and poetry in the face of prejudice and oppression.  

 

Directed by Neil Bartlett

Produced by James Mackay

 

This performance coincides with the Digging in Another Time: Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature exhibition, open at the Hunterian Art Gallery from 2 November 2024.

Blue Now, in this live event version, was commissioned by WePresent by WeTransfer, first presented by WeTransfer in association with Fuel and Basilisk Communications, and originally produced by Fuel.

Audience notes: Contains mature themes