Blackbird Question (WITH SPOILERS)

[bandit964]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 12:24pm

I know the show is closing in 4 performances, but I still want to give the SPOILER WARNING:

So, my friend and I saw this last evening and we left with two completely different views.  I felt for both characters and totally believed Ray.  After talking about the play afterwards, my friend told me she didn't believe him for a second.  I can't believe I never doubted him the whole play.  I felt a little stupid for believing him so steadfastly.  

What did other people think upon leaving?  Now I just keep thinking about it, which I'm sure is the point, but I'm just curious if other people were as easily (perhaps) fooled as I was.

 

 

 

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 1:46pm

I wouldn't say you were fooled at all. My interpretation is that these characters were fooling themselves, to think they they had healed, changed, and moved on from the terrible events. By the end, the personas they've created are stripped away and they still are a frightened young girl, and a man not in control of his passions. I do think Ray believed he had moved on, so it's fair for you to assume so as well.

 

This is was a great production that I'll be thinking about for a while. Glad you got to see it!

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 1:50pm

I think everything about this play (as written) can be interpreted a thousand different ways. From why is she there (to get him back? to ruin his life? to kill him?) to the twist at the very end. I think it's up to the director and the two actors to have a clear sense of everything in their process. I think this production was marvelous in not making everything crystal clear. 

The original UK production had an extra scene with no spoken words that the director put in against the playwright's wishes. Does anybody know what happened in that scene? I can't seem to find any information on it

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:11pm

May I thread-jack slightly? What is the twist at the end?

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:13pm

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

A teenage girl calls out to him and comes into the room. It's never stated if this girl is his daughter or another young victim of his.

 

[bfreak]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:15pm

About 5 minutes before the play ends, a young girl shows up who turns out to be his stepdaughter. She hugs Ray for a moment and they have an exchange, but eventually he convinces her to leave the room. It is trying to get you to wonder if he is having an affair with her, but in the way the scene was portrayed I didn't leave with the interpretation that he raped her. Then, the final ending is him telling her that Una was the only 12 year old girl he had an affair with. Una feels very vulnerable and wants him in this moment, but Ray feeling a sense of wanting to move on (even if he truly can't) runs out of the building saying "I have to go." Una stands center stage and proclaims "Ray, Ray..." as she always did when she was a child and felt that he was her everything. It ends where they are both still damaged in their own ways, but ultimately Una is the one with no real chance of being able to move on from Ray and with her life. Very powerful ending.

[macnyc]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 2:18pm

I think if Ray were entirely innocent, he would have told Una that his girlfriend (or wife, I can't remember) has a daughter. He purposely told her only about the woman he's involved with, not the daughter. My interpretation is that something is going on with the young girl. And I think that's Una's conclusion too.

[bandit964]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 3:13pm

I didn't think at all that Ray was having another relationship with "The Girl."  It wasn't until discussing it later that I started to doubt him.  My friend was also talking about how predators are great liars and will schmooze their way into a relationship with another adult in order to get closer to a younger relative, be it child, sibling or niece/nephew.  Something I've always known, but I guess forgot while watching.  

[playbill-love]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 3:20pm

I don't think Ray was raping The Girl, but I do think her presence opens the question of whether he is grooming her for sexual abuse in the future, and shows that Ray was almost surely lying to Una when he said that his girlfriend knew what happened, and that he didn't have/wasn't around children

[Hairspray0901]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 3:44pm

My take on it was that Ray didn't yet have sexual relations with the stepdaughter yet, but it's a thought that ran through his mind and that he could possibly do it again. 

[sondheimite2]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 5:50pm

I need some time to ponder the OP's question since as nasty_khakis points out, there are lots of different ways of interpreting it, and I've moved through many different interpretations since seeing the show. So I'll be back to say something more about that. I do want to comment on the arrival of the young girl near the end of the play. I think the reason it comes as such a shock to the audience (eliciting audible gasps) is that in addition to revealing Ray's lies, it is an incredibly stark reminder of just how YOUNG Una was when events unfolded between them. Until the arrival of the girl on stage, one can almost picture Una the way that Ray describes her, or even some of the ways she describes herself, but the whole time - throughout her riveting performance - we see an adult (albeit a broken one) in front of us. Seeing the girl compels the audience to remember that Una was just a kid when everything happened. It's a shocking and extremely effective moment for that reason.

[@z5]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 5:51pm

1- another key to whether or not he is innocent is when she asks if his now wife knows that he was going to come back for her at the room that night. He said she didn't know that part. 

2. Also a major point was how although he served his prison sentence, he then changed his name and restarted his life after the "relationship". Una couldn't. Stayed in the same place and served a lifelong sentence. 

[macnyc]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 6:01pm

Yes, and the actress who plays the girl is 14 years old, possibly 15 by now. So you can imagine a 12-year-old. 

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 6/9/16 at 9:14pm

I think Ray is lying to himself. He has a series of lines about how he's not one of "those people" who can't keep themselves away from children. Then at the end, he has a stepdaughter he didn't mention to Una. I think it's entirely possible he hasn't abused her yet but has been drawn to a woman with a child the same age as Una was for a reason--he's just like those other child molesters he tries to distinguish himself from and is lying to himself. 

[@z5]

Posted: 6/10/16 at 1:00am

And even further, I think the fact that he never told his wife that he was going to come back for Una that night and that it was a longer 'relationship' says something else, too. He's maybe afraid to admit that to her and maybe even himself, although he told Una that in private.

[Sylver1]

Posted: 6/10/16 at 11:21am

 You may want to see the interview that Michelle Williams and Jeff Daniels did on the Charlie Rose show recently… Jeff Daniels is doing the part from the standpoint that Ray is lying to himself… Once a child molester always a child  molester… Never occurred to me that he might be grooming the girl even if he has never touched her yet… Interesting theory… I always took it as it makes you immediately assume that she is the new Una in his life...and I relaxed when I realized she was his stepdaughter and never made that connection… Of course it is a real possibility… And I don't think there's any correct answer for this… The playwright is leaving it all open to interpretation

[belrowley]

Posted: 6/10/16 at 8:58pm

sondheimite2 said: "II think the reason it comes as such a shock to the audience (eliciting audible gasps) is that in addition to revealing Ray's lies, it is an incredibly stark reminder of just how YOUNG Una was when events unfolded between them. Until the arrival of the girl on stage, one can almost picture Una the way that Ray describes her, or even some of the ways she describes herself, but the whole time - throughout her riveting performance - we see an adult (albeit a broken one) in front of us. Seeing the girl compels the audience to remember that Una was just a kid when everything happened. It's a shocking and extremely effective moment for that reason."

I agree completely. Though the subject matter is so disturbing, as an audience member, you can't help but be drawn to the characters and their interpretation of the events. Then the stepdaughter arrives, and it's a gut punch to the stomach because it forces the audience to confront the visceral reality that Una was a CHILD and that NONE of this is okay.

It reminded me so much of Lolita - the prose is so seductive and effective, but at the end of the day you're following an unreliable account told by a pedophile abuser.