The Blue Period of Milton Van Der Spuy

Milton van Der Spuy has a few problems - and they’re making him blue. He really wants to complete his next poem, but he’s hit a block with finding a rhyme for orange. He’s desperate to finish his current painting, except he can’t find a way to begin. And then there’s the constant danger that his head might explode…

Named after the poet, Milton is an artist whose talents lie, um… elsewhere. Playwright Greig Coetzee’s most simple, and yet most complex character is brought to life by award-winning actor, Francis Mennigke, in this Silver Ovation Award winning production directed by Peter Mitchell. It is, at once, a whimsical celebration and a playful mockery of Art in all its forms. 

Milton’s not so intellectual brain has been filled with fantasies of being a great artist by his mother, a pathetic woman who tries to live vicariously through her son’s meagre talents. Coetzee’s extraordinary talent for comedy and pathos brings us a character who is at once appealing and laughable, but draws us closer and closer to tragedy as we start to distinguish between his artistic fantasies and the ugly reality.

Milton is naïve, simple and totally compelling as he makes us face pretentious notions of Art and consider the nature of beauty and tragedy within the comedic framework of a middle class white South African man with no prospects. Despite his unique, ‘differently abled’ mind, everyone can relate to this small man with huge dreams as he struggles to fly above his own mediocre life. You will laugh, you will cry, you will never see the Mona Lisa the same way again…