Am I Blue by Beth Henley Am I Blue, is a one-act play written by a Southern playwright, Beth Henley. At the age of twenty, Henley wrote this first play; and it may also have been a play reflecting his transition into adulthood. Being a work written for her love, Stuart White, it is a comic work, but at the same time very serious because it deals with the problems that many teenagers face. In the show, two teenagers, John Polk Richards and Ashbe Williams, meet for the first time in a bar and by the end of the show they know each other very well, despite their personality differences and personal problems. Billy J. Harbin also stated that "the show examines the lives of two lonely teenagers who are deprived of acceptance from both their parents and their peer group" (Harbin 89). Henley's Am I Blue uses literary elements such as language, setting, symbolism, and character to suggest its overall theme that for teenagers, being able to feel accepted by others is a very important factor, especially during times of pain, rejection or loneliness. First, the language of the work helps you understand the plot more easily from exposition to resolution. This play is in modern English and written in a colloquial form which definitely makes it much easier for the reader to relate to the normal conversations that typical teenagers may have today. There…in the center of the card…they dance to the tune of: 'Honey in the Honeycomb' by Ethel Waters and 'Am I Blue' by Billie Holiday or (by Terry Pierce)” (Kullman 23). Therefore, all of these literary elements that Henley uses from setting to characterization illuminate and relate to a particular theme of his play, Am I Blue. Simpson believes this Am I Blue comedy "samples Beth Henley's wonderful gift for creating sweet comedy out of Southern eccentricities, as well as her ability to reveal the sad loneliness beneath the spunk" (Moore, Snipes and Nelson). Therefore, the theme suggests that when you go through the transition from adolescence to adulthood, you will always try to find ways to cope and avoid the real pain and loneliness you experience, no matter what.