‘Blackbird’ a riveting look at power dynamics and personal redemption

The door swings open and two people enter the room, a man and a woman. Ray and Una. The only furniture in the room is a cafeteria table with four blue plastic chairs. Garbage spills out of the can and sprawls across the floor.

“It’s one of those low buildings you pass on the freeway,” she says. “Cars parked outside, no clue what’s inside.”

“How did you find me?” he asks.

That’s pretty much how ‘“Blackbird,” Willamette Stage Company’s latest production, begins. A man and a woman are alone in a room. They have a history, different objectives. It’s almost like Screenwriting 101, except where this scenario is going is territory rarely treaded by conventional films or plays.

Rumor has it “Blackbird” is going to be turned into a film. If so, it’s hard to imagine a more intense experience than the one being offered in Corvallis High School’s Black Box Theater starting Friday.

The play’s stars, Billi Veber and Robert Hirsh, have acted together before in WSC’s production of “Rabbit Hole.” He’s also directed her in the company’s take on “Skyscraper.” Never before has their pairing led to a play of this intensity.

Some members of the audience will hear their pulse in the arteries of their ears, and others will feel their fingers twitch or their stomachs ache. To say that “Blackbird” contains adult subject matter would be an understatement and an oversimplification. It is powerful and thought-provoking, not to mention well written, acted and directed by Linn-Benton Community College faculty member Brian Newberg.

If you’re looking for a plot synopsis, you won’t find one here. It’s enough to say that a man and a woman are in a room. The woman was wronged in all-too-fathomable ways given what we read about in the media. The rest you should experience for yourself.

She’s looking for some kind of redemption or justice or explanation, anything that makes what happened between them all those years ago manageable. What she gets is up for interpretation.

What the audience gets is a powerful interpretation of material that is itself about power dynamics between two people in a relationship. That the one portrayed is so specific yet relates in strange ways to such a broad range of relationships speaks volumes.

“Blackbird” lasts an hour and 45 minutes, and there’s no intermission. Because that’s how life is. Sometimes you find yourself in the most awkward of situations and there’s no way out, not even time for a breather.

Veber says: “If you want to get beyond believable, really engaging, that’s when you have to start taking risks.”

Hirsh says: “The secret to playing somebody like Ray is you have to allow yourself to find the part of you that would do that. It’s in all of us. That’s why theater like this is so compelling to audiences, too, is they’ll allow themselves to take the trip. If they’ll allow themselves to see themselves in both of these people.”

Veber says: “This is why art is. This is why theater exists.”

Go to www.gazettetimes.com or www.democratherald.com to hear a podcast of the interview with Hirsh and Veber.

Check It Out

What: Willamette Stage Company’s production of ‘Blackbird,’ written by David Harrower and directed by Brian Newberg

When: 8 p.m. July 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26, and at 4 p.m. July 20

Where: Corvallis High School’s Black Box Theater

Cost: $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors

Tickets: Tickets and information can be found by calling 368-7092 or www.willamettestage.org.