Fasten your seatbelts. St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s current staging of Blackbird is a jolting ride.
This year it’s pretty much impossible to view a play about child abuse without thinking about Larry Nassar and the young women he attacked. In Blackbird, we have a middle-aged man unexpectedly coming face to face with a young woman he was convicted of abusing fifteen years earlier. That said, one thinks they have some idea of what’s to come when the curtain rises. How could it be so riveting?
Certainly a great deal of credit must go to Scottish playwright Daniel Harrower, who tells this particular story with all its nuances. It’s released with agonizing care, showing who both the persons involved were then and are now. Annamaria Pileggi directs the 2005 play, and her pacing on this is equally painstaking, pulling us forward in our seats until our mental seatbelts tug at our consciences.
John Pierson is the man, Ray – who’s now known as Peter. He works at some anonymous company in some unnamed position. The woman, who was 12 at the time in question, is Una, Elizabeth Birkenmeier. Even now, she seems much younger than her stated age. Ray spent more than three years in prison for molesting her and has managed to rebuild a life since, according to the play, this occurred before there were lists of convicted sex offenders. But Una has found him and shown up just as the work day is almost over.
The actors are the third crucial element in making this a remarkable eighty minutes. Pierson is a shaken man, fumbling to answer questions, pacing, trembling. He strains to explain himself, bringing us into the question What’s the difference between an explanation and an excuse? He never says that what he did was permissible, certainly. The view from inside his head is amazingly portrayed. Birkenmeyer’s Una is a stunner. At first she seems deranged, and then proceeds to glide with no seeming effort into anger and then go on from there to her memories. They leave her, too, pacing and shaking and explaining her side of things. It’s a superb performance, and beautifully drawn ensemble work, as well.
Patrick Huber’s deliriously messy break room is the setting for this, including a door that slams convincingly and some translucent windows that add to the suspense. John Pierson also did the sound, and Teresa Doggett the costumes.
It’s surely not a story of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Both the situation and the language are not for everyone. But it’s a fine example of how good theater can leave an audience shaken and thinking.
Blackbird
through February 25
St. Louis Actors’ Studio
Gaslight Theater
360 N. Boyle
314-458-2978