Stage Review - Blue to Blue (Annex Theatre)

Stage Review - Blue to Blue
Presented By: Annex Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: March 21 - April 12, 2025
Date Reviewed: Friday, March 21, 2025 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 105 Minutes (no intermission)
Reviewed By: Anna Tatelman

Whether you’ve seen many shows at Annex Theatre or have yet to see one, their current production of Blue to Blue serves as an excellent example of what Annex strives to be: a repertoire for new work that is courageous, unique, and can speak to audiences on both a collective and personal level. Written by Christine Deavel, this world-premiere production explores the many facets of grief through the eyes of Beryl, a woman who has recently lost her mother. Under the direction of Alison Kozar and Rowan Gallagher, Blue to Blue gives us an honest depiction of how grief can fluctuate without warning between hollow solitude, inarticulate pain, and surprising moments of connection with both those living and gone.

Blue to Blue is an experimental piece of theatre, rife with choreography that beautifully blurs the line between traditional acting, performance art, and dance; meditations on poetry, paintings, global catastrophes, and photography; and characters who often speak to one another on a heightened, poetic level rather than one of realism.

That said, like a more traditional narrative, there is a protagonist whose emotions and struggles propel the story forward. By day, our main character, Beryl (played by Cecelia Frye), is a coffin maker who works alongside colleagues Marl (Carrie Schnelker) and Opal (Angel Gao). By night, Beryl can only gaze at the ever-growing pile of boxes containing her late mother’s possessions. Frequently accompanying her both to work and at home are Cora (Ken Kavin) and Dusty (Atlas Peek), who function as a sort of Greek chorus, providing both a sort of ongoing narration to the audience and a sounding board to the human characters.

Blue to Blue unflinchingly portrays many of the complexities of grief, like the paralysis when it comes to decisions both large and small, the immense weight that the absence of a loved one can hold. To begin unpacking all of her mom’s boxes would mean Beryl has to unpack not just her mother’s death, but all the unresolved threads of her mother’s life and of their relationship. One of the lines that I loved most is said by Marl, when Beryl is struggling to complete her normally routine tasks: “You have a different midnight.” For Beryl, as for many suspended in grief, stable concepts like time itself go into untraceable flux. Amidst all this despair, though, are tender, small moments of profound connection, like when Beryl eats apple slices with her colleagues or manages to connect with her mother inside her dream.

I did feel the script got a bit muddled in the depiction of Cora and Dusty. If not for the synopsis labeling them as a makeshift Greek chorus, I would not have known to call them that, as I couldn’t get a coherent read on either their powers or their unique functions within the narrative. At times, Cora and Dusty seem to have otherworldly abilities, like predicting the future and manipulating time or the human characters. At other moments, they seem to have no omniscient knowledge or control, other than the ability to receive (from an unknown location) slips of paper with poems by Emily Dickinson.

Nonetheless, this is a dynamic world premiere of a nuanced script brought to life by a solid five-person cast. Cecelia Frye does a great job capturing the numb, stagnant despair of Beryl’s grief, and the nonlinear bouts of both progression and regression that are often part of the healing process. Angel Gao as Opal, a fellow coffin maker, is a young woman earnest to help Beryl, and that genuineness shines through in her performance even when she makes a gentle misstep. Carrie Schnelker as Marl, the third coffin maker, approaches Beryl with the same sincerity, but more cautionary understanding; although the text doesn’t make this explicit, Schnelker subtly portrays Marl as someone who has gone through grief herself, and intimately understands Beryl’s fluctuating desires for connection and solitude as not being personal. Ken Kavin’s Cora, one of the Greek chorus members, presents a being who, though sympathetic to Beryl, approaches her grief with more stoicism, offering words or art made by other artists rather than personal insights. Meanwhile Dusty, the second Greek chorus member played by Atlas Peek, tenderly depicts a spirit who is at times less removed from humans, occasionally reaching out for a hug or hand hold, seeking both to offer and receive comfort.

Annex might be a small blackbox theatre, but the production qualities of Blue to Blue are of an amazing caliber, especially and in spite of limited resources. The set (created by Teia O’Malley) is intricate and beautiful, with hundreds of folded notecards plastered to the walls and hanging from the ceiling. The scenic design becomes even more impressive during certain moments, like when the dining room table and chairs are suspended in mid-air. Color me extra-impressed when the cast actually constructed a coffin right in front of us!

The sound design (by Lillie Wirth) and music (composed by Max Irvine) immerses us in a world both familiar and otherworldly with its near-continuous fusion of diverse sounds like gong reverberations, discordant strings or keys, ticking clocks, and a sort of whistling wind like that made by seashells. And I loved the bold choices made for this piece by lighting designer Sihan (Samantha) Yang, like the moments when the stage was lit only by a ghostlight, or when soft beams rippled across the back of the stage as if we had been plunged into the ocean.

If you’re looking for a play that’s new and outside the realm of traditional narrative theatre, Blue to Blue might be just what you need. Annex’s current show is an experimental, emotional journey featuring an ensemble of talented actors and phenomenal production elements on par with theatres operating on larger budgets.

Blue to Blue runs on stage at Annex Theatre in Seattle through April 12. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://annextheatre.org/season-38/mainstage/blue-to-blue/.

Photo credit: Sayed Alamy