Blackbird
The Bang and The Clatter
Reviewed by Darlene A. Morales

The Posse Girls attended the performance of Blackbird on Friday night June 20th at The Bang and The Clatter Theatre downtown. What an amazing experience!

We are talking about theatre, up close and personal. We were literally on the stage with the two performers for about two hours with an intermission.

It was a dark and mysterious subject matter. Not for the faint of heart. This is a two person play featuring Alanna as Froggy and Sean as Baylis. They are an odd couple, but coupled none the less.

The setting is a slum apartment, dirty mattress on the floor, broken windows, and mouse trap next to my right foot. I did say literally on the stage.

Froggy is a heroin addict diagnosed with hepatitis, disowned by her rich parents, and pregnant with someone's baby. They met at the strip club where she worked. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her.

Baylis is an ex Desert Storm vet, injured with a disk problem in his back from working with a moving company. He is living on assistance, impotent, and incontinent and in constant pain. He is an alcoholic, drinking Jack Daniels and beer continuously throughout the play to numb himself.

He has a strong southern accent and seems to be educated to a degree, in that he is a proficient speller. Froggy is chained to the radiator when he leaves so she won't escape and score more heroin when he is gone.

They love each other. She might be using him to take care of her, and he actually with all of his ailments seems to be the caretaker. He is disabled. They both are physically and emotionally. The interactions between the two of them borders on humorous to tragic, and back and forth.

At one point he returns from his excursion to buy Froggy some water, with blood dripping from his head. He limps, so the police think he is a drunk and beat him.

He returns to find her very week, she is jaundiced, her legs have no feeling left and she is dying. He decides to shoot himself up with an overdose of heroin and lie next to her and they die together, on the dirty little mattress, in the run down apartment, alone.

The blackbird pecks at the broken window pane throughout the play, annoying Baylis, and charming Froggy. Some say that birds appear to those who are ready to pass on to the next world as helpers to transition them to the after life. This may have been the point.

There were moments of sexual explicitness and strong adult content. It was raw and intense. Free flowing and highly emotional. There were parts where I didn't and couldn't look directly at Baylis. I turned my head because I couldn't watch.

We talked as a group about it afterwards at a Mexican place called Zocalo's down on East 4th, outside in the Cleveland summer night air. It was a fabulous night to be downtown. Perfect weather, and perfect company.

One line that struck me that night in the play, was when Baylis stood looking out the duck taped window, and it is Christmas Eve, and he says, "Look at all those people down there, running around, chasing Christmas." I loved that line. So true.

This was a highly charged play. Very thought provoking. I am still thinking about it days later.

It was a sad story about the reality that some people live today. But, there was an underlying theme of love...an urban Romeo and Juliet of sorts.

I'm glad I went!

Peace,
Darlene

Blackbird By Adam Rapp

Featuring Sean Derry and Alanna Romansky

Directed by Sean McConaha

The Bang and The Clatter Theatre Company

224 Euclid AvenueCleveland, Ohio 44114

330-606-5317

bnctheatre.com

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