Type and hit ENTER

Commonly used tags...

Brighton Festival Brighton Fringe Brighton Pride British Sea Power Cinecity Lewes Psychedelic Festival Locally Sourced Lost & Found Love Supreme Festival Nick Cave Poets Vs MCs Politics Rag'n'Bone Man Record Store Day Save Our Venues Six Of The Best Source Virgins Streets Of Brighton Street Source Tattoos The Great Escape Tru Thoughts Unsung Heroes
  • Home
  • News
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Food
  • Tickets
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Advertise
  • Home
  • News
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Food
  • Tickets
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Advertise
Blackbird | Brighton Source
Blackbird | Brighton Source
Blackbird | Brighton Source
Blackbird | Brighton Source
Blackbird | Brighton Source
Previews

Blackbird, 21st – 28th May

Apr 21, 2016
-
Posted by Mike Aiken

Can you imagine a meeting with your ‘ex’ 15 years after you split? If so, it probably won’t be anything like the encounter between Ray and Una, the lead characters in David Harrower’s Blackbird. They’ve got issues with a capital ‘I’ and an exclamation mark. This one act play was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 and it’s still receiving acclaim. We went to find out why at a preview rehearsal at Rialto.

We meet Una and Ray in a scrappy locker room surrounded by rubbish. A black stage, some chairs and tables, a solitary window. This could be the back of a warehouse on the junction of a ring road somewhere near you.

Una keeps saying ‘yes’, eager to please, and ends up wanting to pull out his eyes. Neighbours are slapping her in the street. There are police, courts and therapy. Ray hears it on the news. He writes a letter that she never gets.

We follow Ray’s wringing hands and downcast eyes, but then he turns to anger. Una is bitter, ready for revenge, but then her body talks of desire. Dare we see reconciliation after guilt? It’s pretty clear what is right. But what’s obviously wrong is kicked so far off-kilter by Ray and Una the play ultimately poses different questions to the ones we were expecting. No spoilers here, but let’s just say it’s a secret you’d want to keep.

We meet the director, Sam Chittenden, at rehearsals and ask what excites her most about this play. She says: “This is a topic where there are very strong views. The writing is powerful – the dialogue feels for real.”

So what exactly happened between this couple? And are the characters telling us the truth about what they feel now? We begin to question and sympathise with a clumsy pair trying to sort out some truth from a horrific mess. That’s a feeling, at least, that’s familiar to most of us in the audience.

“Sometimes we don’t know what we think until we speak,” says Sam Chittenden. “That’s when we find out what we mean, what we know, and what we feel.”

Una and Ray take us to two frontiers: between the taboo and the erotic, between punishment and remorse. It’s like standing in the shadow of a truth and reconciliation commission. The guilt is undeniable. But the memories and feelings don’t have straight lines. We like edgy plays like this: tough theatre with no simple answers.

Rialto Theatre, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th May 2016
Buy tickets here

Words by Mike Aiken
Photos by Sam Chittenden and Teo Andreadis

Apr 21, 2016
Email
Mike Aiken
Mike lives in Brighton. This is a full time occupation. He's also a researcher, writer and activist. Any time left over he spends hanging around cafes and pubs listening to people on their phones. He loves theatre that pokes into difficult places. You won't find him on Facebook.
← PREVIOUS POST
Gregory Porter Review
NEXT POST →
10 Of The Best Art Shows To See This May
Mailing List

Recent Posts
  • Two Decades Of Funk Fire With Jalapeno Records
    Jan 18, 2021

    A new compilation celebrates 20 years of funk and soul from world-renowned Brighton label Jalapeno Records.

  • Hansel and Gretel? | Brighton Source
    Hansel and Gretel? Review
    Dec 18, 2020

    A postmodern pantomime with an unrelaible narrator. Outdoors with comedy, dance, camp actors, plenty of fun. On two levels: laughs for kids and jokes for adults

  • Artists Open Houses 2020
    Dec 5, 2020

    After cancelling the May edition, Artists Open Houses tell us what it's like to be back with a December festival that is open to visitors in person for eight days.

  • Cinecity 2020 previewed by Brighton Source
    Cinecity 2020
    Nov 17, 2020

    From the North Laine to Mongolia, Cinecity's lineup is typically eclectic and original this year - catch it before the city's key film festival ends.

  • Macbeth Review
    Nov 2, 2020

    Macbeth in Brighton. One-act play with Scottish Gaelic sounds by This Is My Theatre. Power, ambition, murder, blood. The woods are moving.

  • Lost & Found: Poison Girls
    Nov 2, 2020

    As part of our retrospective series on local bands we look back at the hugely influential and ever-challenging anarcho-punk collective Poison Girls.

  • The Rose Hill | Brighton Source
    Save Our Venues – The Rose Hill
    Oct 26, 2020

    We spoke to the team at the Rose Hill to find out how a series of new creative projects is helping this unique Brighton venue to cope with the current crisis.

  • Spillage! Review
    Oct 19, 2020

    This one-person, one-act play is giddy, funny and seriously entertaining. An odyssey through the madness of corporate pressure on our mental health.

Website developed in Brighton by Infobo
Copyright © Brighton Source 2009-2020
Blackbird - Brighton Fringe Theatre Show - Brighton Source