Actors soar in 'Blackbird'

Drama poses provocative questions about passion

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Both actors are at the top of their games in “Blackbird,”Peppermint Creek Theatre Co.’s opening salvo of a season with thetheme, “Two-Sided.” Peppermint’s artistic director Chad Badgeropromises that “no situation is simply black or white,” and in  “Blackbird,"Doak Bloss and Angela Mishler confirm this in a production that leavesthe audience emotionally bruised and battered, spiritually black andblue. This is not a play for the faint of heart, yet it is a play thatstirs the soul.

We do not live in a world in which we are often invitedto examine the reasons, the motives or the impulses and the behaviorsof those adults who find themselves sexually attracted to children.

Immediately, reactively, almost instinctively, we arerepulsed, often enraged. We are quick to condemn and even demonize theindividual who is caught engaging in these acts. But are all thesecases the same? Is there a single ideological, politically correctperspective that explains each situation? Are they all issues of power,mortal sins, evil personified? Are perpetrators themselves previousvictims, or do they have underlying inadequacy issues?

“Blackbird” is just one of these stories. Writer DavidHarrower pits perpetrator against the victim in what at first appearsto be a process of reconciliation; then, through twists and turns,Harrower confirms that not every action we take in life is completelyredeemable.

Bloss is Ray, a now-60-something man whose life has beenmade tortuously difficult by a choice he made in his early 40s. Mishleris Una, once a 12-year-old, now older but maybe not wiser, whose earlysexual experience with Ray has scarred and wounded her.

Together, they dance their way through differingrecollections of what actually happened, how they came to the momentsthat came close to ruining their lives entirely.

Bloss portrays Ray as a man who has done a lot oftherapeutic work to both understand and forgive himself for his earlieractions, while Mishler recounts the impact of his actions and herparticipation in this affair and the trauma that has since ensued.

Emotionally, they display a wide range of  feelings,their voices disappearing at times to an effective stage whisper andrising at other points to roaring enragement. There are moments offrightening violence and tender remembrances, all played powerfully andwith great authenticity.

Clearly, the audience struggles with the notion offinding Ray to be an honorable man. A wrinkle in the story appears inthe final moments to further complicate that struggle. 

“Blackbird” takes on a horrendously messy heinous issueand amplifies its complexity and the difficulty in attempting tounderstand it, both for those who have been caught up in the situationand for audience members observing it as well.

‘Blackbird’

Peppermint Creek Theatre Co.

8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, Friday, Sept. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 1

226 E. Grand River Ave., 

Lansing

$15 adults; $10 students and seniors

(517) 372-0945

www.peppermintcreek.org 

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