Thomas Weatherall talks creative process and bringing Blue home to Brisbane

I began writing Blue during a bit of a difficult time in my personal life. I now lovingly refer to it as a sort of unprescribed therapy, but at the time it was really a coping mechanism to make sense of some of the things I was struggling with.

It was the first time in my life I found myself unable to articulate my thoughts and experiences, but through the safety net of fiction it all felt a lot more accessible. 

It began as a really personal process, and it wasn’t until I began sharing the work with those closest to me that I began to see it as a story worth sharing.

Blue has undergone many different iterations and drafting changes, long before it was ever presented to a theatre company! 

Overall it was about a four year writing process, which for the final year Belvoir came on board for, as part of the Balnave Fellowship. 

Once working under the Fellowship the work really went to a new level, receiving dramaturgical and script notes from the company as a whole and particularly Dom Mercer, Kodie Bedford, and Eamon Flack. 

With such an intimate piece, it was important that the creative team reflected that, and it became quite a collaborative and open process, as other creatives brought a bit of themselves and their experiences to the work.

I was a classically trained dancer growing up, so the inclusion of movement and physicality in a way felt inevitable. 

It’s a rare and powerful thing for a young person to talk as openly and freely as Mark does in this work, and I think innately we tend to deal with things through more physical and practical means, rather than solely emotionally or through intellectualising.

Mark is a young man who is used to dealing with things physically; through sport, throwing himself into the ocean, taking practical steps to cope, and I think integrating that physicality into this deeply reflective piece adds to the journey in which he comes to understand and cope with his own issues.

Ironically Blue was always a placeholder, that I came to love, taken from a line in the Bill Withers song ‘Hope She’ll Be Happier’. Blue symbolises a myriad of things, while also being quite contradictive. 

As a colour it’s often described to represent a sort of sensitivity and despondency, whilst concurrently reflecting a sense of stability and wisdom. I think that’s an apt reflection of the piece; a search for reliability and hope, through the murky waters of depression and grief. 

At the core it’s also an homage to the ocean and sky - a sort of life-affirming source that is constantly there for both the character of Mark, and myself as the writer.

Bringing this play to La Boite feels like a real homecoming for both the work, and myself as an artist. I’m very passionate about keeping the arts alive in Queensland, and being able to share such a personal work at the theatre I grew up attending feels very special.

I wrote the piece only a few blocks away whilst living in Brisbane, and I’m so excited to share it with an audience that can hopefully relate to the more universal themes, whilst enjoying some of the more nuanced references to my hometown.