I'll admit I went in for the tech rehearsal, not at all sure at all what to expect. I didn't know how long it would be.
As it turns out, jumping in with little preparation was the best decision I could have made if we wanted to be absolutely gobsmacked and sucked into performance in a way that I don't know if I've ever been before.
The lights dimmed and in just over an hour it felt like I barely even took a breath as I watched actors Charlotte De Wit and Phil McGrath confront, comfort, criticise and cry to each other in a dirty car garage. With minimal stage setting and incredible acting they made me cling to their every word as their problematic, spellbound past poured out before me. The trash on the ground was surely a metaphor to things previously left unsaid, the shitty mess that was made, even as it had been 15 years since they'd seen one another.
The acting was superb with great chemistry. Both characters were realistic and disturbing as we learn the details of the case that sent McGrath's character, Ray, to jail and put De Wit's character, Una, through therapy.
McGrath has been awarded numerous CONDAs over his decades of work as an actor and De Wit was trained in acting in New York. Alongside acting, she is also the co-artistic producer of Her Productions, the producer of Blackbird.
I appreciated the thoughts of the play's director, Pip Thoroughgood, on how she first came in contact with Blackbird on a high school trip to New York and watched Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams "rip my heart out and blow my mind and wake me up".
"Not only does [playwright David] Harrower investigate trauma through the lens of pain or regret but through betrayal and yearning," Thoroughgood says.
"Charlotte, Phil and I are investigating how much we can toy with this yearning. What still survives between these two and how do we sit in this uncomfortable understanding of being groomed? Not just what it feels like but how it can last far beyond crime and punishment."
My companion and I were in tears at the end, feeling a need to hug each other and the actors. It's so really powerful and thought-provoking.
Time flies when you watch it. It's not easy to watch, but you'll be so glad you did.
