Live and in person at the Barrie by the Bay Commercial Complex, Barrie, Ont. Playing until March 29, 2025.
Written by David Harrower
Directed by Dean Deffett
Costumes designed by Sequoia Erickson
Sound design by Nolan Moberly
Set and prop co-ordination Lauren Cully
Cast: Lucy Janisse
Cyrus Lane
Kirstyn Russelle
A gripping, explosive production of an unsettling play that is about love and obsession. Beautifully acted by the cast. Director Dean Deffett is one to watch. He’s a sensitive, bold director.
The Story. Blackbird by David Harrower is about an affair that ended badly. Una and Peter had an affair fifteen years before. It was passionate, consensual and lasted about three months before Peter broke it off. Now 15 years later Una tracks him down to find out why it ended. Una is now 27 and Peter is now 55. That is correct. At the time of the affair, Una was 12 and Peter was 40.
It’s very easy to think the play is about pedophilia. Playwright David Harrower never makes things easy in this play. It’s so nuanced. He calls the play a “love story.” I don’t doubt him.
Society sure thought it was pedophilia and sent Peter to prison. He served his time; changed his name to Ray—the text lists him as Ray and Una now refers to him as Ray; got a job and went about his life. Una was also in a prison of her own. She remained in her small town with her parents and endured strange looks from people. All her relationships failed. She loved only one person and that was the man she knew as Peter. She saw his photo in a magazine as part of a team in a business and tracked him down.
The Production and comment. It’s explosive. As with many Talk Is Free Theatre productions, Blackbird is played in a site-specific place in an office complex in Barrie. There is a ‘mountain’ of garbage to the side of the small space where the audience sits, that offers atmosphere for the production. The acting space is a small, garbage-strewn lunch-room of some industrial building. It’s filthy. Garbage overflows the garbage can.
When the play begins in darkness, we hear a door open and some kind of forceful activity. Ray (Cyrus Lane) is on one side of the room, tense, frightened, anxious, and Una (Kirstyn Russelle) is on the other side, combative, challenging. He is in a suit and tie with cell phone on his belt. She is in a fall coat underneath is a sleeveless summer dress and heels. Sequoia Erickson has designed the clothes and deserves kudos. As the production progresses, it appears there is s slit up the middle of the dress that offers some alure to the ‘look.’
Una is now a confident woman who has single-mindedly come looking for Ray to not only find out what happened when he left her without explanation, but also to continue (one imagines) the relationship, this time as a young, mature woman.
He is mortified to see her. They dredge up the past. They met at a family BBQ. Una’s father invited Ray—he was a neighbour. He went but didn’t know anyone. Una was there and was scowling and unhappy. So he went up to talk to her. She liked him and pursued him. He thought of her often after that. The relationship went from there, meeting, being obsessed with the other, discovering love, having consensual sex until he ended it, sort of with a little help from being arrested and sent to trial.
Ray seems to have some custodial job there although he is reluctant to admit it. He is skittish about being in the presence of this woman. As Ray, Cyrus Lane is a mixture of being timid, desperate at being found and forcing himself to be in control. Ray has tried valiantly to hide his former ‘self’ and here he is being discovered. As Una, Kirstyn Russelle is compelling. It seems she is almost toying with Ray. She has all this pent-up rage that has been seething for 15 years. She also plays up Una’s womanly wiles. She knows how to play a man—in this case Ray—and put him on the defensive. But this isn’t about a calculating woman. It’s about a person who was abandoned and never knew why; who had to endure being ostracized with no place to hide.
Director Dean Deffett has maneuvered his cast around the small space with dexterity, sensitivity and keen imagination. He has initially staged Ray as far away from Una as possible. She sinks into a corner. He has a table between them and he doesn’t want to get close. They circle each other but keep their distance until later in the play when their emotions erupt. I love the immediacy, urgency, passion and danger of this production. And the tenderness and love—that is clear. Director Dean Deffett, illuminates the vulnerability of both characters. Both Ray and Una are fragile, damaged, confident and yearning for the other. He has a gifted cast, but this young man’s creative brain is impressive. Dean Deffett—remember his name. I’ll certainly be looking out for his productions.
The play and production leave us with a lot to chew over and think hard about.
Talk Is Free Theatre Presents:
Plays until March 29, 2025.
Running time: 90 minutes.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I am so pleased that Dean is directing. He was a student of mine at Sheridan…a unique and remarkable talent, always thinking outside the box, daring and graceful at the same time. It delights me to read your words of support, not only for Dean, but for this cast and theatre.
A thoughtful mensch. Smart and sensitive. Wonderful work.