KEY POINTS:
Since its debut at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, Blackbird has been a runaway success.
It transferred to London's West End where it won the Olivier Award for Best New Play while garnering almost universal acclaim from productions by major theatre companies throughout the world.
I approached the play with high expectations but found I could not share the enthusiasm with which critics have greeted this controversial work, which presents the gut-wrenching account of a sexual relationship between a middle-aged man and a 12-year-old girl.
The action takes place 15 years after the event when the girl, now a woman in her late 20s, impulsively tracks down the man who has served jail time and built a new life as an employee of a pharmaceutical company in a remote industrial estate.
Playwright David Harrower has been praised for unflinchingly confronting the complexities that are obscured by society's abhorrence for child sex abuse and he certainly succeeds in humanising characters who are more commonly presented as helpless victims and irredeemable monsters.
But for me the work is limited by its postmodern refusal of all moral absolutes and an unhealthy fascination with transgression - discovering endless shades of grey in a subject that might be more clearly illuminated in black and white.
Having said that, there can be no doubt that Harrower is a brilliantly talented writer and the play is well served by Margaret-Mary Hollins' finely crafted production.
Michael Hurst's performance captures the barely contained torment of a man racked by guilt, desperate to preserve the lifestyle that enables him to control his inner demons. Liesha Ward Knox is unnervingly restrained in her portrayal of a confused, damaged soul and her delivery of a long cathartic monologue movingly channels the haunted voice of the little girl who has been permanently scarred by feelings that lie beyond her comprehension.
Robin Rawstorne's set design effectively delineates the careless utilitarianism of a dishevelled factory canteen and Bryan Caldwell provides an object lesson in how lighting design can unobtrusively reinforce the drama. When the factory has a sudden power cut, Caldwell creates an eerie half-light which evokes a predatory malevolence that is more eloquent than anything found in the script.
In spite of my own reaction, the play is a testament to the power of live theatre and will provide audiences with a provocative and unsettling experience.
Review
What: Blackbird
Where: Maidment Theatre
When: Until September 27
