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magidSunday I went to a Speakeasy Stage
Company's production of Blackbird (David Harrower). It is not an easy show,
about a woman confronting the man who had sex with her when she was
12, a decade or so before. She shows up late one night at his
workplace, where he's using a new name, and confronts him. At first,
it seems that she might be on a quest for closure somehow, but as
things evolve, it becomes clear that she wants more than that. However
society saw the liaison between a 12-year-old girl and a 30-something
guy, there was greater parity between them than that, and she wants
him back/again.
The set and the timing add to the crescendo: there is no break in time
(no intermission) or space, with the one room the action took place in
being a trash-strewn break room, which looked extremely unsanitary to
me. Nice use of perspective, though.
I feel rather mixed about the show. I can imagine situations where
there might not be the usually-assumed power dynamic between a
much-older guy and a pre-teen girl, but I think they'd be few and far
between. It doesn't help that while I felt Marianna Bassham gave a
fairly good performance, her costar seemed much weaker. Also, there
were times when the show dragged. Or at least it seemed to to me, as I
anticipated far too many of the plot twists, so they didn't feel
particularly novel when they finally arrived. I don't know whether
this was my issue alone (and could be helped by better editing), or
more general - there were lots of people giving a standing ovation at
the end, even though people weren't quite sure that the show had ended
when the music started.
Company's production of Blackbird (David Harrower). It is not an easy show,
about a woman confronting the man who had sex with her when she was
12, a decade or so before. She shows up late one night at his
workplace, where he's using a new name, and confronts him. At first,
it seems that she might be on a quest for closure somehow, but as
things evolve, it becomes clear that she wants more than that. However
society saw the liaison between a 12-year-old girl and a 30-something
guy, there was greater parity between them than that, and she wants
him back/again.
The set and the timing add to the crescendo: there is no break in time
(no intermission) or space, with the one room the action took place in
being a trash-strewn break room, which looked extremely unsanitary to
me. Nice use of perspective, though.
I feel rather mixed about the show. I can imagine situations where
there might not be the usually-assumed power dynamic between a
much-older guy and a pre-teen girl, but I think they'd be few and far
between. It doesn't help that while I felt Marianna Bassham gave a
fairly good performance, her costar seemed much weaker. Also, there
were times when the show dragged. Or at least it seemed to to me, as I
anticipated far too many of the plot twists, so they didn't feel
particularly novel when they finally arrived. I don't know whether
this was my issue alone (and could be helped by better editing), or
more general - there were lots of people giving a standing ovation at
the end, even though people weren't quite sure that the show had ended
when the music started.