BLUE KISS

So my new bestie, the intelligent Gigi, and I went to the new Ruskin Theatre in Santa Monica the other night to see this one-week-old play, and we could not have had a more yin-and-yang theatre experience.

We loved the venue, and that entire location, but felt quite the opposite about the play, Blue Kiss.

So let’s do the positives first. If you don’t know, the Ruskin Group Theatre is smack dab in the middle of the…Santa Monica Airport!!! That’s why I love it so much. I’ve always found that place fascinating, so I was thrilled to introduce it to Gigi, who concurred. She had never been there before!

The good news continues with the theatre being so accessible. All the parking is free and only a few steps from the entrance. The lobby personnel could not have been more pleasant and accommodating. We learned there are actually two new theatres in that same upgraded space; Blue Kiss is playing in the smaller sixty-seat one. (The old one right next door to the premises is now closed.)

The theatre was packed on Saturday night, which made us feel that we were in the right place.

And the best news of the night is that the entire south side of the airport, which includes the Ruskin, the Museum of Flying, and the restaurant, (which was totally happening that night,) is staying put when the other side, with the hangars and planes, gets torn down in early 2029 to become a park! Finding-out the total plan really cheered me up because I had thought that the entire charming area would be gone.

So we went into the play with the happiest of attitudes. But we came out feeling, as Gigi so aptly put it, “heavy.” Not only is the story a bummer, nothing about the production is very good. The audience we saw Blue Kiss with just slunk out of there the second it was over, which signifies the opposite of an uplifting or enriching theatre experience. (At the previous handful of plays I recently reviewed, everyone had such a good time that they all hung around for a long time after, happily chatting away. And two of the plays were dramas about murder! But they were so good that they garnered those positive feelings among the audience.)

Suffice my description to say that Blue Kiss has just two actors, (playing an SAT tutor and his new female student,) there are sooo many holes in the script, and it takes forever to get to what the supposed intrigue is.

Mercifully, it’s only eighty minutes long. But it feels much longer. I kept checking the time. We both said that it seemed about three times longer. Gigi said it “dragged,” which is kinder than how I would have put it, so I’ll leave it at that.

There is a surprise (or two) along the way, but it takes forever to get to them. The slow pace is maddening. We both kept wondering what the narrative is supposed to be about.

The two actors do something so annoying—they say a line and then it feels like they silently tell each other, “your turn,” as opposed to having a natural conversation. And the writing makes no sense in several places, such as having the guy go to the off-stage kitchen to make tea, when there is absolutely no reason for his absence in the main room. And then, after he’s been out there for a few minutes and comes back on stage, he tells the girl that he has to go start the water. So what was he doing to make the tea for those two minutes in the kitchen if he wasn’t heating up the water??? How else do you make tea, no matter what method you use to heat it up?

And I could not for the life of me figure-out why the girl needs dirty hair for her character. From the second she entered, I kept thinking that would have something to do with the mystery I felt had to be coming, (like that she’s a homeless person, and not even a student,) but it’s never explained.

Another head-scratcher is that when the student, whom the tutor had never met, rings his bell, he quickly hides a picture of him with his brother. Why would he do that?! I assumed that the photo was of his girlfriend, and maybe the girl at the door was really an online date or escort whom he didn’t want to know about his relationship. (Those scenarios might have been more interesting, actually.)

And what is up with the title? I feel like they’re trying to do what Glass Menagerie did with the term “blue roses” for “pleurosis,” (which is an incorrect term for “pleurisy.”) As Blue Kiss plodded on (and on,) I began to wonder what the title means. And then we find-out that once, long ago, the tutor’s kid brother had thought that the name “Lucas” was “blue kiss,” but that child-specific error doesn’t really mean anything to the story.

But there is some good news coming down the road for the Ruskin’s new Arts Center. It will host outdoor music events this summer. And, in that unique location, they should be special!

Blue Kiss running through May 17, 2026
Ruskin Group Theatre, Audre Stage
2800 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica
(310) 397-3244 www.ruskingrouptheatre.com