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The Blues Ladies and Gentlemen... The Blues... Aldo's Bar... New York... 1951. With these words, the play opens and the blues begin. To the throbbing accompaniment of Billie Holiday's saddest hits, four people play out their tenuous lives in a down-at-the-heels bar. Ripples, the lady of the night, bewails her lost loves and nurses her hurts. The Salvation Army girl, Virginia, learns what sin means. Aldo, the bartender, watches the great parade and tops up the drinks with philosophy. And finally, the writer, Tyrone, buys love for $20 a shot and labours over his typewriter, turning the dingy bar into the setting of a bad novel. As these B-movie types enact their fantasies and obsessions in the bar, the resulting scenes are sometimes pathetic and sometimes hilarious, creating a pastiche of lonely midnights, love for sale and the losers who always hope to win.
The Blues was first produced at the Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto, May 1976 with the following cast Ripples- Elan Ross Gibson Virginia-Fina MacDonell Directed by Hrant Alianak The Blues (revised version) was first produced at the Theatre Passe Muraille, March 2003 with the following cast Ripples- Linda Griffiths Directed by Hrant Alianak Set Design by Steve Lucas & Sherri Hay Selected Reviews “An entertaining play of outstanding integrity and artistry" "Uproariously funny…inspired satire…hugely entertaining, especially the brilliant marathon soliloquies" " Brilliantly imaginative" "Alianak 'showed an affection and talent for shaping melodrama, movie romanticism and film noir into his absurd universe in The Blues'" Publishing History The revised version of The Blues was published by Scirocco Drama in 2003. ISBN 0-920486-35-5.
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