Critic Note: The performance reviewed was of the October 1st preview
Content Warning: This review will contain mentions of child sexual abuse. To view more detailed content warnings of Blackbird please check out the show page on Talk Is Free Theatre’s website.
Incredible performances and chemistry between Cyrus Lane (Ray) and Kirstyn Russelle (Una), bolstered by nuanced direction by Dean Deffett and a smart set design by Lauren Culley that uses the tight room in Hope United Church to great effect, give powerful drive to a strong and uneasy story by David Harrower.
Una was 12 and Ray was 40 when they met. When they got closer, Una was still 12 and Ray was still 40. And when Ray went to prison for statutory rape, Una was still 12 and Ray was still 40. David Harrower’s script and Talk Is Free Theatre do not shy away from these facts in both production and pre-show materials. Now Ray is 55, out of prison with a new life, a new location, and new name of Peter. Una, now 27, finds his photo in a magazine and drives to… well, I want to say confront… enact revenge? Shame? Expose? I don’t even think Una knew fully what her intentions were as the story moves forward.
Tense is the atmosphere that surrounds this production. It is tension that never dissipates. Inside the tight small room in the church, surrounded by curated garbage (once again the work of Lauren Culley), the audience and characters are choked by this tension. It is volatile and raw. Una and Ray let it all hang out. The trauma of what Ray did to Una. The grief over loss of childhood for Una. Grief over the loss of freedom and family for Ray. Accusations over who initiated their interactions and escalated them. Ruthless interrogations about each other’s present lives, and nostalgia for a past desire that was in all the ways wrong and f**ked with a capital F but was very real to them both. Dean Deffett’s performer direction uses the tension to create an almost dance-like choreography between the actors that keeps the room on a razor’s edge. Ray will get closer and Una will retreat, Una will get closer and Ray will retreat. They calculate how physically close they can safely get to each other, and all the while it feels like one wrong step can cause an uncontrollable eruption.
The highlights of this production are no doubt Cyrus Lane and Kirstyn Russelle.
Cyrus as Ray vibrates with the weight of a man doing his best to suppress his past until the living reminder that yes, he did sexually abuse a child, comes back and hits him in the face. He is antsy, sweaty, desperate to get Una out of his life/workplace and yet can’t bring himself to kick her out, despite their argument reaching fever pitches (guessing the security guard was on break?). He stutters and fumbles words trying to absolve himself (perhaps he feels after his prison stint with a pedophile label that he has been punished enough). He gets himself 80% of the way there to taking full emotional accountability but struggles emotionally and physically to admit what he needs to admit. His body visibly recoils as his past confronts him, but we see him drawn to the same feelings that led him to Una in the first place. This is a character constantly on a tight rope. Watching him keep his balance on his new life and moving forward and watching him fall off into his old feelings is exhausting and engaging to watch. Cyrus handles this tough story and character with an honesty and openness that greatly captures the attention of the audience.
Kirstyn Russelle’s journey as Una is perhaps the most complex. She can go from vengeful victim to shrewd investigator to scorned lover on a dime. Her eyes flare with anger, hurt, grief, guilt, disdain and affection. She fights (sometimes literally and shoutout to Christina Fox for crafting disturbing and compelling fight/intimacy scenes that keep the sharp tension balance) to keep Ray in this room and be honest. She stalks and recoils at Ray, switching between confident strong woman engaging her abuser and the child retreating from that same man. Her words can carry a deadly offensive tone as she slashes away at Ray and carry a softness for the man who, at one point, she had genuine love for. Kirstyn’s masterful handling of the story and text makes these transitions smooth and her skill engaging with this story with honesty, vulnerability and rawness makes her a must-watch. Her grief over her loss of childhood (the shame sexual abuse victims go through even from their own family and community members is a heavy theme in her story) and hurt over her first love (despite its deeply problematic and disturbing nature) is on full display with uncomfortable strength.
This is not an easy play. It goes uncomfortably deep into a relationship that had all the wrong power dynamics and desires. Showing how a child can perceive love with the wrong person and how that affects them growing up. How those who have abused others try to run from their past, even when that past catches up to them in their office. Talk is Free Theatre’s production owes the strength of this raw and uncomfortable story to the commanding performances of Kirstyn Russelle and Cyrus Lane led by the direction of Dean Deffett and supported by the production elements of Sequoia Erickson (Costume Designer), Nolan Moberly (Sound Designer), Lauren Cully (Set & Props Coordinator/Production Assistant) and Christina Fox (Fight & Intimacy Director). Their performances alone make this show a must-watch, but make sure you read the content warnings and prepare yourself.