Blue/Orange is a 3 (or 4?) act play by Joe Penhall in which two psychiatrists battle over the fate of a patient in a mental asylum. The patient Chris is a black Londoner who appears to be ready for release, able to take care of himself, albeit suffering from borderline personality disorder. He believes the inside flesh of an orange is blue, when he knows it should be orange, and this terrifies him.
Bruce, the younger physician, ostensibly thinks Chris is seriously ill and dangerous and wants to keep him in the asylum, while the senior Robert knows he's ready to leave. The two physicians can't help analyzing each other. Bruce repeatedly misunderstands his patient due to cultural differences, as in an exchange where Chris is talking about his "neighbors" (meaning the people around him, wherever he may be, in the hospital, in the subway, on the street) and insists that at that very moment Bruce is his neighbour.
Bruce begins building a case for keeping him in custody, and as his conflict with the senior doctor grows more combative, begins building a case against Robert for deciding to release a potentially dangerous patient because he is poor and black. Bruce convinces himself of Robert's transgression, but Robert anticipates him, finally thwarts his coup attempt and reveals to Bruce that he has been a victim of his own biases, poor assumptions and prejudice. Throughout, Chris remains in his initial state of mental health, a borderline personality, possessed of mad thoughts, potentially dangerous, but aren't we all?