Blue Now

Artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s landmark final film, Blue, a reflection on life, love and loss, is given a live performance to mark World Aids Day.

Blue (1993) was British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s final feature film, completed shortly before his death in 1994.

31 years after it was made, British director Neil Bartlett and actor Russell Tovey have worked together to create a special live performance of the film with Travis Alabanza, Jay Bernard, Joelle Taylor, Russell Tovey, Simon Fisher Turner and Lucy Railton.

Blue features a continuous single shot of the colour blue, accompanied by a kaleidoscopic soundtrack of voices and music, as Jarman reflects on his AIDS-related illness, impending death and loved ones lost to the virus.

Due to this illness, Jarman became partially blind – his vision was often interrupted by shades of blue light. In the film, he describes blue as the colour that, ‘transcends the solemn geography of human limits.’

Simon Fisher Turner, who created the original soundtrack, performs a new score, created in collaboration with cellist and composer Lucy Railton.

Directed by Bartlett, Blue Now’s cast includes Travis Alabanza, Jay Bernard and Joelle Taylor, who together deliver Jarman’s powerful words (previously voiced by Jarman himself, Tilda Swinton, Nigel Terry and John Quentin).

Blue Now is a unique opportunity to reflect on the impact of the British AIDS epidemic and the importance of creating space for compassion, rage and poetry in the face of prejudice and oppression.