Blackbird Revisited

When I first saw David Harrower's play Blackbird on Broadway in 2016, it quite impressed me, so when I heard that Kim Sharp would be directing a revival of the piece, I knew I wanted to see it.

Sharp's direction is spot on, and actors Francesca Ravera and Lenny Grossman deliver compelling performances. I had seen Ravera before in a production Sharp directed of Neil LaBute's The Way We Get By at Urban Stages. Originally from Italy, she speaks with a slight accent, but this worked for the character of Una, giving her the feeling of someone slightly different, someone the character of Ray might have found exotically attractive when he had an affair with her fifteen years ago.

The hook here is that fifteen years ago Una was only twelve years old. She tells us right from the beginning that this was abuse--he abused her--no doubt about it. Once we establish that Ray was an abuser, the interest in the play hinges on what being an abuser really means. Grossman does an excellent job of exploring the nuances of his character, not charming us into finding him attractive and likable, but not making Ray into a slimy monster, either.

As a playwright, I enjoyed watching the play a second time around and seeing all of the twists and turns in the script. Harrower certainly knows what he's doing in the piece, and crafts the shifts and surprises quite deftly. If you've never seen it before, you're in for a treat.

Act quickly, though, because the play closes on Sunday, October 3rd. Performances are at the New Ohio on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.

Best Plays of 2016

There weren't too many good things about 2016, but there were a few stand-out theater productions in New York, so once again I'm compiling a list of the best shows I saw that opened in New York City this past year.

Remember, these are shows that opened in 2016, so I couldn't include Sense and Sensibility, The Woodsman, and some other great plays I saw this year. Here are my picks in reverse order:

10. Blackbird - David Harrower wrote Blackbird more than a decade ago, but the play didn't make its Broadway premiere until this past February. That's a sad commentary on the state of American theater, but better to arrive late than never. Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams were excellent in this two-hander (or is it?) and the play kept audiences guessing right until the end.

9. Othello: The Remix - This hip-hop update of Shakespeare's tragedy re-imagines the story with a comic twist, but the Q Brothers manage to create a few touchingly dramatic moments as well. This show is still playing at the Westside Theater off-Broadway, and if you haven't seen it yet, get your tickets now! It's only running until January 15th, so you better act fast.

8. The Bacchae - The Faux-Real Theatre Company does some magnificent work re-imaging the Greek classics, and this year's production of The Bacchae at La Mama was no exception. The masks were excellently done, and the moments when they came on and off of the actors were especially powerful. Lynda White's puppets brought added excitement to Euripides' tragedy. Be sorry if you missed it!

7. The Humans - Stephen Karam's off-Broadway hit The Humans transferred to Broadway this year, winning a Tony Award for Best Play in the process. While the cast of The Bacchae was filled with young up-and-comers, this production features veteran actors Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell giving performances of a lifetime. The Humans is also closing January 15, so get your tickets if you haven't seen it yet!

6. The Place We Built - Kudos to The Flea for staging this play about a right-wing takeover in Hungary that seems scarily prescient of our own country's position today. Sarah Gancher's script gives a shocking account of recent events in Hungary told through the eyes of a young American filmmaker (played touchingly by Isabelle Pierre). The play's use of music also added tremendously to the performance. Particularly given recent events, we need more plays like this.

5. Widowers' Houses - The Actors Company Theatre is known for their quality revivals of classics, and this co-production they did with Gingold Theatrical Group earlier this year even surpassed expectations. George Bernard Shaw's first performed play doesn't get done much anymore, and this production proved what a shame that is. Widowers' Houses exposes not just the corruption of our economic system, but also how all of us are implicated. More than a hundred years after the play was written, it is still sadly relevant.

4. Puffs - Yes, this show has been around for a while, but it only opened off-Broadway this year, so I'm including it on the list. If you haven't seen it yet, Puffs tells the story of a certain boy wizard during seven increasingly eventful years at a magical school that shall not be named for copyright reasons. The brilliance of this play by Matt Cox is that instead of focusing on Harry and his friends, it gives us an account of three losers at the school who belong to the one house that perpetually comes in last. If you're a Potterhead and haven't seen it... where have you been! Get your tickets now!

3. Hadestown - New York Theatre Workshop's production of Hadestown has got to be the best new musical to come out of 2016. Based on a concept album by Anais Mitchell, the show tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice against the background of Depression-era rural America. When Patrick Page as Hades asks the musical question "Why do we build the wall, my children?" chills will definitely run through your body. Though the brilliant production directed by Rachel Chavkin is closed, a cast album is being released, and I'm holding out hope that this show will eventually return, perhaps even on Broadway.

2. Butler - Richard Strand's comedy about the Civil War general Benjamin F. Butler has been making the rounds at regional theaters, but when New Jersey Repertory Company brought their production to 59E59, it was the first time New York City audiences got a chance to see the play. Ames Adamson was perfect as the title character in this comedy about how history-shaping decisions really get made. Strand proves that serious topics like war and slavery can be laughing matters after all. Though theater in New York City may be struggling, this production proves that in many places, regional theater is still going strong.

1. A Doll's House - My favorite production this year was Theatre for a New Audience's magnificent staging of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. Starring Maggie Lacey and John Douglas Thompson, this play could not have asked for a better cast. Director Arin Arbus placed the audience on two sides of the stage, making sure that everyone had an intimate experience with the classic play. This rendition was funny, sexy, and ultimately heartbreaking. Thorvald and Nora's marriage made sense in this version, though that didn't mean it wasn't still doomed from the beginning. Make a note to check out TFANA's shows next year. They could be just as surprising!

Honorable mentions this year go to Mabou Mine's Imagining the Imaginary Invalid and Ivo van Hove's Broadway production of The Crucible. Hopefully 2017 will be a better year, for the theater and for the world!

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbird

This afternoon, I say David Harrower's play Blackbird at the Belasco Theatre. Harrower wrote the piece more than a decade ago, but it has been done all over the place, and for obvious reasons: small cast, simple set, provocative subject matter.

The play follows Ray (played by Jeff Daniels) and Una (played by Michelle Williams), who meet in an office. Fifteen years earlier, the two had a sexual affair. At the time, she was twelve.

Boom.

But why is the play called Blackbird? Is it the bird-like calls Una made for Ray some fifteen years ago? Or the fact that the play keeps changing its perspective, looking at the same situation from different angles, similar to the Wallace Stevens poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"?

In the spirit of Wallace Stevens, I offer the following reflection:

                              I
               Among twenty audience members,
               The only thing they agreed upon
               Was that the title of the play was Blackbird.

                              II
               I was of three minds,
               Like three cats
               That had just eaten three blackbirds.

                              III
               The blackbird whirled in the sea of trash.
               It was a small part of the tragedy.

                              IV
               A man and a woman
               Are one.
               A man and a woman and a blackbird,
               Now that's just sick.

                              V
               I do not know which to prefer,
               The beauty of Una's monologue
               Or the beauty of her innuendoes,
               The blackbird calling
               Or just after.

                              VI
               Figures walked past the long windows,
               Appearing in sheets of glass.
               The shadows of the coworkers
               Crossed it, to and fro.
               The blackbird
               Traced in the shadow
               An indecipherable play.

                              VII
               O thin men of Scotland,
               Why do you imagine golden birds?
               Do you not see how the blackbird
               Walks around the table
               In the company break room?

                              VIII
               I heard noble accents
               And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
               But I heard, too,
               That a blackbird might have been involved
               In what I heard.

                              IX
               When the blackbird flew out of sight,
               It marked the edge
               Of the set turning in circles.

                              X
               At the sight of blackbirds
               Flying in florescent light,
               Even the bawds of cacophony
               Would cry out in surprise.

                              XI
               He drove across some unnamed state
               In an easily identifiable car.
               Once, a fear pierced him,
               In that he mistook
               The shadow of his automobile
               For blackbirds.

                              XII
               The audience is gasping.
               The blackbird must be flying.

                              XIII
               It was evening all afternoon.
               It was raining
               And it was going to rain.
               The blackbird sat
               In the balcony.