Shadowbox Productions Presents BLACKBIRD, Beginning 4/11

By: Mar. 22, 2012
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Shadowbox Productions will present their inaugural production, Blackbird, by David Harrower. Directed by Mikaela Davies and staged at Les Ateliers Jean Brillant from April 11th – 22nd, Blackbird will "captivate audiences with a brief glimpse into an office break room where two estranged lovers encounter each other and try to work through their illicit and controversial past.

"Challenging and provocative, Blackbird dares to ask the audience to re-evaluate their definitions of love and law when Una confronts her former lover, Ray, fifteen years after their affair has ended. Guilt, rage and raw emotions run high as they recollect their relationship when she was twelve and he was forty. Without any moral judgments, Blackbird never shies away from the brutal, disturbing truth of their abandoned, unconventional love. Ray, fifty-six, after years in prison and subsequent hardships, has a new identity and has made a new life for himself, thinking he could no longer be found. Una, twenty-seven, has thought of nothing else, and on discovering a photo of Ray, sets out to find him. She is looking for answers, not vengeance. Nevertheless, the consequences are shattering."

For playwright David Harrower, nothing is portrayed in black and white. Harrower has stirred up much controversy categorizing their relationship as a love affair, "I know it was dangerous ground… People know this kind of relationship shouldn't happen and there was no point for me confirming what people believe. It was very important to me to let these two characters in this room together say anything they want to each other without me censoring it. And they can say anything they want to each other because they are the only two persons who knew exactly how they felt or what they wanted."

Shadowbox Productions is excited to offer the kind of theatre that dares Montreal audiences to re-examine their beliefs and confront circumstances that are not easy to reconcile. For director Mikaela Davies, "Blackbird tackles the subject of sexual abuse beyond the roles of victim and abuser… it asks questions instead of providing answers, challenging us to see the humanity in both characters."

The cast of Blackbird is led by two talented and esteemed acting coaches from Carter Thor Studios East who teach scene study classes in Montreal, Isabel Farias and Jock MacDonald. They are joined on stage by young actress Charley Hausknost. Blackbird is produced by Raphael Grosz-Harvey and Sara King. Set design is by Jesse Orr. The stage manager is Tara Bissett.
"This haunting, powerful, incendiary work is the sort of daring theatre far too absent from our stages these days"- The New York Post

Blackbird was commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival and premiered at the 2005 Festival under the direction of Peter Stein. The work has been performed in more than forty productions worldwide, garnering both the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland for Best New Play (2006) and the esteemed Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play (2007). It was performed locally in French at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (2009).



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