7 June 2016. Blue/Orange at the Young Vic

The entrance to the theatre is ingenious. One passes through the waiting room of a hospital clinic before entering the auditorium. The set is similarly lifelike, all the action taking place in a smallish therapy room in a psychiatric unit. At first we meet the 'patient', Christopher and the junior psychiatrist, Bruce. There is a lengthy interchange between them, concerning whether Christopher should be discharged but also introducing whether his race will intrude upon the decision - whether psychiatry is colour-blind.
Shortly, the consultant, Robert, joins the pair. After engaging in some rather patronising banter with Bruce, he makes it clear that he would like to see Christopher discharged. He dresses this up with all sorts of enlightened reasoning but one continually feels that his decision is really motivated by the cost of keeping someone hospitalised as well as the senior's desire to assert himself over his junior.  
Towards the end, it becomes clear that Christopher really does need to remain within the institution. He believes oranges to be blue and it becomes apparent that his claimed ancestry to Idi Amin is but a delusion. However, by now, the relationship between Bruce and his senior has deteriorated beyond redemption and so it is the consultant's will that prevails. Christopher is discharged.
Overall, I found it hard to know what to make of this play. It seemed to espouse some Laingian ideas but only in the cynical hands of Robert and completely inappropriately. So were we meant to think Laing had a point or not. Likewise, it addressed the issue of racial bias but it was clear that in the case of Christopher, bias was not the cause of his original sectioning. He really was mad.  Then again it dealt with the pressing need to meet targets and economise in the NHS. But it is hard to believe this would extend to someone who really thought oranges were blue.
I also had  a slight issue with the acting. It struck me as overdone. One row followed another. Looked at positively by the FT as 'a bruising ding-dong', it left me feeling it was somewhat exaggerated - to the point of implausibility.