Intense “Blackbird” at TheaterWorks is riveting
Three Stars
Theater: TheaterWorks
Location: 233 Pearl St. Hartford.
Production: by David Harrower. Directed by Amy Saltz. Set design by Luke Hegel-Cantarella. Costume design by Anne Kenney. Lighting design by Mary Jo Dondlinger. Sound design by J. Hagenbuckle. Fight direction by Matthew Campbell.
Running time: 90 minutes, one intermission
Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays — 8 p.m. Matinees on Saturdays and Sundays — 2:30 p.m. Extra Sunday evening shows — 7:30 p.m. (later weeks of most runs). The show will run through May 11.
Tickets: $37, except Friday and Saturday nights, $47, and are unassigned. Center reserved seats $11 extra. $10 student rush tickets at showtime with valid ID (subject to availability). For tickets call 527-7838 or visit their Web site at www.theatreworks.org.

ACTOR…CHARACTER
Beth Wittig … Una
J. Tucker Smith … Ray

By Kory Loucks
Journal Inquirer
The intense, gut-wrenching production of “Blackbird” at TheaterWorks is a riveting, tormented story of the aftermath of child abuse.
Written by David Harrower, the play examines the cathartic nature of seeking some kind of understanding of an unforgivable act. This show is clearly an adult topic for adult audiences only.
Una, played with compelling fear and intensity by Beth Wittig, is in her late twenties. When she was 12 Una had a sexual relationship with a 40-year-old man who at the time was named Ray. Ray, played by J. Tucker Smith, has changed his name to Peter and started a new life elsewhere.
Una has found where he moved, by chance and confronts him at his place of employment.
Set in the present in a trash-filled break room where Ray works, the two talk about their equally trashed lives since they last saw each other 15 years ago.
The play has its sympathy and empathy understandably with the damaged young woman whose life is forever compromised. It is a non-judgmental examination of pain and loss, love and fury, attraction and repulsion, fear and disgust.
Both actors were excellent and believable. The dialog is written and delivered in fits and starts, seeking answers to questions where none exist.
Wittig’s Una veritably seethes with self-doubt and rage at the man who molested her, while Smith’s Ray convincingly portrays a tormented haunted man carrying a guilty secret he’d like to change as easily as he changed his name.
Ray says she was the only one, the only child he ever slept with, which can’t be a good thing for her. Actually either scenario would be horrible. It’s clearly a no win situation.
Not much room for humor here — with heavy accusations and recriminations flung on both sides, except when Ray is concerned about what she has in her pocketbook and Una derisively says, “I was going to Kleenex you to death.”
There are twists and turns in the plot, as well as an unanticipated ending, which won’t be given away here, but suffice it to say this is one compact, raw, revelatory play.