A 40-year-old man has sex repeatedly with a 12-year-old girl. 
12-year-old girl loves that man.
Man goes to jail for three years.
Fifteen years later, the girl, now a grown woman, comes to find the man.
What could possibly happen after that?
Blackbird. Blackbird on Broadway is what happens.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this show, allow me to recap:
At his workplace, 55-year-old Ray is shocked to be visited by a young woman, 27-year-old Una. Fifteen years earlier, he had sexually abused her. This relationship, which included intercourse, began and ended when Una was 12 and Ray was 40. Ultimately, they ran off together, and Ray abruptly ditched Una at a motel in a location that was not familiar to the the twelve-year-old. Ray was then arrested and imprisoned. Upon his release, he managed to establish a reasonably successful new life under another name, but Una recognized him in a photograph and tracked him down.
Ray takes Una to the office break room, where the two engage in a long and difficult confrontation involving Una’s continuing struggles to understand and come to terms with the abuse and her intensely conflicting emotions, which pivot between anger, curiosity, confusion, and even a persistent attachment to Ray, whom Una loved – and she believed that he loved her. The fearful Ray parries her demanding questions and descriptions of her feelings and experiences, all the while uncertain of her intentions.
Well.
I’ve never been to a show that made me so uncomfortable. I’ve never been to a show that made the audience so uncomfortable – you could cut the tension with a knife.
It’s uncomfortable in the ways that one would imagine, I mean, we’re tlaking about a case of rape and pedophilia here. But it’s uncomfortable on a whole new level, for you, as the audience member, cannot help but feel as though you are a bystander to some sick and twisted love story. Ray is undoubtedly a monster…and yet, there are moments when you feel bad for him. When you pity him.
It makes you want to take a shower after.
This production is in fact a revival, and I did not see the production on Broadway in 2007.
What’s curious to me, is why revive such a show? It is in fact quite dark. It has been done. And it’s only been 10 years since it’s graced a Broadway stage…
…so…why now?
The only thing I can think of…is, perhaps we need to have more of a conversation about mental illness. Perhaps we need to look at these issues head on, instead of hiding them in the darkest corners that we can find.
Perhaps this revival of Blackbird is the catalyst for a conversation that should’ve been started almost ten years ago.
Perhaps.
Blackbird is running at the Belasco Theatre until June 11th.
Go see it if you can, let us know what you think. Cause art, well, it’s all about the conversation, eh?
Live, Love, Learn,