C&R Productions Presents Blackbird

On the Fyda-Mar Stage…
After years in prison and subsequent hardships, Ray, fifty-six, has a new identity and has made a new life for himself, thinking that he cannot be found. Una, twenty-seven, has thought of nothing else; upon seeing a photo of Ray in a magazine, she has arrived unannounced at his office. Guilt, rage, and raw emotions run high as they recollect the passionate relationship they had fifteen years ago, when she was twelve and he was forty. Without any moral judgments, the play never shies away from the brutal truth of this abandoned and unconventional love. Una is looking for answers, not vengeance. Nevertheless, the consequences are shattering.

NOTE: Contains strong language, adult content, and other potentially triggering content.

Presented by C&R Productions

WOW! From StageSceneLA

“a harrowing, disturbing, utterly compelling guest production at Anaheim’s Chance Theater”

“a visiting production more than holds its own against Chance Theater’s regularly scheduled best.”

“Director Christa Havenhill has made the savvy decision to set Blackbird in 2005 … before the #metoo movement and social media reshaped the way we respond to allegations of sexual abuse.”

“Wolf matches her more seasoned scene partner every step of the way as a woman whose obvious relish in finally having the upper hand is tempered by a decade-and-a-half of pain and shame and acting out.”

“Following a series of memorable musical star turns at the Chance … Hastings proves himself equally gifted at bringing to complex, conflicted, non-singing life a man whose attempts to justify the indefensible fall on deaf ears.”

“All of this gives dynamic Chance favorite Hastings and gifted stage neophyte Wolf plenty to sink their teeth into in a pair of performances guaranteed to hold audiences riveted, and perhaps even a bit torn about just whose side they are on at any given moment.”

StageSceneLA

“There are no easy outs in the mesmerizing C&R Productions revival of David Harrower’s “Blackbird”—not for its two characters locked in brutal psychological warfare, nor for anyone in the audience wishing for a moral framework that makes sense of their tortured relationship.”

“And throughout, Mr. Hastings is vibrantly ambiguous—a beleaguered and terrified mediocrity, made larger somehow by a monstrous act, whose deepest motives remain obscure, probably even to himself.”

“Maybe the word for this production is unflinching… It reminds us of the unnegotiable complexity of human pain and desire. It’s brilliant, necessary theatre.”

The Show Report