A highlight of this year’s Camden Fringe and a shining debut from writer, Daisy Roe.
Camden Fringe is such a great opportunity to see promising new writing talent, and Blue Balloons Pink fits the bill. The debut of writer-performer Daisy Roe, the show is a razor sharp analysis of the pressures of fertility on a heterosexual relationship.
In the space of an hour, and one very uncomfortable ‘gender reveal’ party, the audience bear witness to the years-long resentments, underlying character flaws and thorny family dynamics of parents-to-be Ash (Ruaridh Aldington) and Maggie (Daisy Roe). Aldington has a boundless energy as the overbearing Ash, moving swiftly between enthusiastic father-to-be, neurotic party planner, and something else more dark and disconcerting. Given the extreme emotions and swift movement between them, it would be easy for Ash to come across as a caricature; however, Aldington imbues the character with credibility and nuance. The same is true of Roe’s Maggie, whose apathy in the face of Ash’s manic enthusiasm is uncomfortable to watch. Her vulnerability comes through in the refrain of “Ash, tell me you love me” – an attempt at communication and connection that inevitably fails. Both actors achieve moments of sympathy: an impressive feat given that the show presents the characters at their lowest lows.
As you may have gathered, this is not an easy watch. The tension builds incessantly across the course of the play, and the emotions and themes at play are intense. There are many twists and turns; I will refrain from spoiling the specifics, but must commend director, Miranda Kingsley, for circumventing any melodrama. That said, the ingenuity of Blue Balloons Pink is that the twists are incidental – they inform our understanding of the characters, but they aren’t the sole purpose of the show. Indeed, it is the smaller details that resonate the most. Overstepping parents in law that increase relationship tensions; infertility of loved ones creating awkward divisions in pregnancy; Ash’s overzealous determination that the baby is a boy; and the need of both parents-to-be to defend their individual friends and family members’ faults, whilst vilifying their counterpart’s. Roe does a tremendous job of capturing the many competing tensions and complicated family dynamics that come with ‘starting a family’.
With more development time and an increased creative team, there are aspects of the show that could become more polished. The flashback scenes to earlier moments in Ash and Maggie’s relationship could be better delineated from the present day, with more of a marked change in dialogue and acting. The original music, by composers Joel Oldham and Anna Foye, could do with a smoother integration into the action. However, these are just small tweaks that will benefit the show in its next stages of development – and Blue Balloons Pink definitely deserves to be seen by wider audiences on a bigger stage.
The amount that this small team have achieved is truly laudable. I left the theatre with a totally new perspective on the different expectations, neuroses and quirks that people bring to pregnancy, and how these can conflict and converge to devastating effect.
Blue Balloons Pink is playing at the Hope Theatre until 27 August 2022 as part of the Camden Fringe Festival.