Rise of the blue city

performance
Rise of the Blue City is a music theater performance on the water of ‘t Oldambtmeer near Blauwe Stad – a wetland area in east Groningen with an illustrious history. The play is set in the distant future (the year 2386) where the gap between rich and poor is wider than ever before, where cane cigars grow into the sky and mutated cows dominate the flooded landscape. In Blue City, which has since become a district of the ever-expanding Randstad, three escaped crooks arrive. They hide in the grimiest part of the Netherlands in search of a new place to ground.

design
Bluecity is a blueprint for a futuristic community that constantly has to adapt to a changing climate and new planning ideologies. The actors play stereotypes, each representing one side of the story. They stand on pontoons that float forward one by one from a jetty. The scenography reinforces the allegorical value of the piece with Brechtian tools: the many changes of place, time and characters are illustrated by simple bold words coming from script directions. In addition to the lettering, the pontoons have also been given a characteristic prop: ‘Huib-Jan’ has an outboard motor, the ‘Krumper on Customized Vehicle’ a smoke machine, ‘the alluring water’ a fountain, ‘the burning canteen’ an edge of fire, etc. When all the pontoons are sailed ‘downstage’ they form a grit. However, this model city soon casts adrift to a new (dis) order.