'Blackbird': Four Stars with an Overflowing Trash Can * * * *

You're not going to leave the theater with a song on your lips, but David Harrower's 'Blackbird' will stay in your head awhile. It's a terrific rendering of an unsettling premise -- that the line between passion and sickness is not always drawn as clearly as we might like to think.

As Una (Jessi Campbell) confronts Ray (Steven Culp) in his stark, white office lunchroom, fifteen years after the brief affair that sent Ray, then in his forties, to prison for having had sex with Una, then twelve, we realize almost immediately they are still drawn together, impossible as that may seem. Although both characters are living fragile and shattered lives due to that affair, the fact that it happened seems more and more understandable as the play advances -- until the very end, when The Girl appears.

That's all we're going to say about the plot, but understand that The Girl blows away all the perceptions the playright has been setting us up with. She'll give you the creeps. Some of us still have them and we saw the play two nights ago. Brrrr -rrrr.

Various reviewers are quibbling about changes to this version or that version, but for those of us who prefer to review what we see on the stage, 'Blackbird' is a knockout. It's the right length too -- one long act without an intermission. Have your candy ready, though -- you're going to need to hold on to something reassuringly sweet at the end.



The Great Plotnik Theater Awards Division awards 'Blackbird' one star for each of the principal actors, one for the writing and another for Una and Ray when they trash the lunchroom. We're taking away a half because there is something too unsettling in the character of Una, but then we're adding it back because, after reflection, and chocolate, we've decided this is what the playright meant. Four Stars with an Overflowing Trash Can for 'Blackbird.' It's scary. It's messy. And it's great.