A great deal of things can happen in the span of fifteen years: people move, fall in love, get new jobs…or they don’t, or rather, they can’t. And when that past comes knocking at your office door, when you sweep her into your trash-filled lunch room, what then? David Harrower’s Blackbird, in an intimate new production directed by Dean Deffett, is an unsettling story of how one affair has entirely changed the lives of those involved. With more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan film and tension so thick you could cut it with a butter knife, Blackbird leaves its talons lodged in you long after you’ve left the theatre.

Though, I suppose theatre isn’t entirely the correct term. Talk Is Free Theatre has found such a unique way to present this story, creating an immersive experience for the audience. Playing at Hope United Church, the trail of food packaging begins as soon as you walk into the auxiliary room outside the main playing space. A stack of pizza boxes and other containers line the side of the room near where the audience is seated, and you get the feeling like no one’s been in to clean up in weeks. The confined space allows for very few audience members, while allowing for us all to feel like flies on the wall for their confrontation. Leaving the door which the audience enters through open creates a startling echo effect every time the characters slam the door shut; this amplification of the sound only enhances the tension which is already present between the characters.

Ray and Una met fifteen years ago at a barbecue: Ray was forty, while Una was just twelve. The two were neighbours, living just a few houses away from one another, and strike up an unlikely relationship. What starts out as them talking quickly becomes more, as the besotted Una’s affections are not discouraged by her much-older crush. After one fateful night where the two leave town together, the whole thing becomes unravelled, and their lives are destroyed forever. Now, Una has arrived at Ray’s workplace, having seen his photo in an advertisement. She wants answers: about why he did what he did, what happened that night away from home, and how he could still continue with his life when hers had been so stagnant. However, whether that’s really all she wants, or if she truly gets the answers she’s looking for, is left for the audience to puzzle out.

Cyrus Lane and Kirstyn Russelle give career defining performances as Ray and Una. Their intensity and vulnerability make Blackbird such an engaging show. Lane’s Ray oscillates between distant and almost despicable to open and pitiable. Where Russelle’s Una is heartbreaking and yet at times totally unnerving. Their dynamic noticeably shifts from moment to moment, and watching them navigate this intricate script together is like watching an acting masterclass.

I’ve been unable to stop thinking about Blackbird, and in my musings I got to thinking about why this play would still be selected for a production in 2025, and the first thing that came to mind was the Epstein Files. How there are men who, unlike Ray, have gone unpunished for even worse offences for years. I wondered if those girls feel like ghosts, like Una talks about in Blackbird; if their lives were put on hold for years wondering if and when justice would come – we’re all wondering when justice will come. Yet Blackbird takes an interesting approach to this topic: while Una was clearly underage and therefore it’s still considered statutory rape under the law, she was admittedly a willing participant in the actions which occurred. The moral quandaries get rather murky when one truly considers all of the facts we’re presented within Harrower’s harrowing text. The events themselves aren’t what’s truly up for debate within the scenario we witness: these things happened, they were both punished in their own ways, they have both attempted to move on. So why is Una there? Why, after all of these years, does she choose to face this man on her own? What can be gained for either of them by reuniting? These questions are circling my mind, and yet I think the lack of solid answers is part of what makes this such a riveting experience.

The trash in the room acts practically like a character unto itself; covering every visible flat surface. At the highest point of tension and frustration between the two, there’s a fabulous sequence where they hurtle the trash all over the room, even at one another. This physical manifestation of their inner turmoil quickly turns towards the romantic, further distorting our perceptions of their intentions. Blackbird keeps you on your toes, never allowing you to fully settle in without some form of interruption or eruption of emotion, and thus also not allowing for us to fully pass judgement upon the characters. The more they talk and the more junk gets moved around, the less black and white the situation becomes.

“It was a perfect illusion

Somewhere in all the confusion

You were so perfect

You were a, you were a perfect illusion”

The audio track to Lady Gaga’s “Perfect Illusion” rings through the room as the lights go down for the final time – a song which beautifully encapsulates what we’ve witnessed. During their affair, Ray and Una were living in a perfect illusion, but what happens when the fantasy’s broken? Blackbird asks audiences to consider all sides of the story, the multiple truths which exist simultaneously, while also testing our belief in these characters and the truths about themselves which they cling to.

Blackbird runs at Hope United Church until October 18. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.tift.ca/shows/blackbird

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“Perfect Illusion” lyrics from: https://genius.com/Lady-gaga-perfect-illusion-lyrics

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Cover Photo: Cyrus Lane and Kirstyn Russelle. Photo by Dahlia Katz.

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