Blackbird takes flight to challenge audience
12:31pm Thursday 24th April 2008
DAVID Harrower’s Olivier Award-winning play Blackbird, starring Dawn Steele and Robert Daws, comes to Malvern Theatres on Tuesday.
Blackbird is an explosive play, which originally premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005, prior to seasons in the West End and off Broadway.
Guilt and raw emotions run high as Ray is forced to confront the past when Una arrives unannounced at his office. As the two recollect the passionate love affair they had 15 years earlier, tensions rise and the audience is faced with uncomfortable questions: when is love abuse? And can we ever break free from the shackles of the past?
Dawn Steele, who plays Una, admits to having had reservations about taking the part. “It’s a gift of a part for an actress, but I was quite scared of it and had to think about whether I wanted to do it or not,” she says, explaining that those around her gave her no choice, telling her that of course she was doing it. “It’s really challenging,” she adds, “and the biggest thing I’ve ever done. It’s just me and Robert for 90 minutes. In the end I decided I was just going to go for it. It would have been silly of me to turn it down – after all, it’s an Olivier award-winning play, directed by an Olivier award-winning director.” It was not, however, the challenging subject matter that made Dawn pause before taking the part: “It’s a big learn,” she explains, “and it was daunting to go on tour with a play that was already so successful in its own right.” Dawn, perhaps best-known as Lexie in BBC’s Monarch of the Glen, is enjoying the tour, for which she’s getting great reviews: “I love the process of doing theatre,” she says. “You get four weeks to work on it and you know a lot more about your character than you would on TV. But what’s different is that you’re doing the same thing over and over every night, which keeps you on your toes, whereas with TV you’re doing something different every day, even every hour.” The theme of Blackbird is not an easy one, and after-show discussions have been well attended: “The discussions are really busy,” says Dawn, “which is a testament to the power of the play. It’s 90 minutes long, pretty full-on and people still want to stay and talk about it.
“It really picks you up by the scruff of the neck and challenges you,” she concludes.
Blackbird, directed by David Grindley, runs at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, May 3. To book, call 01684 892277 or click on the link below.