Blackbird (Salford)

Stickleback Theatre Company have produced David Harrower's 2005 play and bring it to the Lowry for one performance.

Blackbird takes place fifteen years after Una and Ray had a three month relationship and ran away together. At the time Ray was a 40 year old man while Una was under age. Now a chance spotting of his photo in a trade magazine and Una has traced Ray to his new place of work and his new identity. She has driven for seven hours to find him but her intentions are vague.

The play is primarily a two-hander between Ray and Una as they explore the people they were fifteen years ago, the people they are now and how what happened has affected them both. Volatile emotions, guilt, love and pain are all explored, underscored by an uncomfortable theme of what makes sexual abuse of a minor.

Ray has moved on, he is in a new relationship, has a new job and has left his past behind him. Una, on the other hand, still lives in the same town and has faced prejudice and abuse ever since from the locals. The disparity between their current lives is highlighted by their attitudes.

Sian Weedon as Una and Chris Saunders as Ray both produce intense and powerful performances while director Gordon Hamlin has pulled no punches in getting the dramatic tension across.

But Blackbird is not an easy watch. The fine line between love and abuse is blurred and as such the play leaves more questions than it answers which is a shame.

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