Blackbird tackles a tough topic

Claudia Stavisky, French director of Blackbird. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A play exploring the darkness and complexity of humanity in the context of a paedophilia scandal will be performed in Shanghai in June.

Blackbird by Scottish playwright David Harrower premiered in 2005 and won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for best new play in 2007.

It was partly inspired by the true story of a sex criminal. The story takes place 15 years after the man was arrested and imprisoned for having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old.

Ray, the older man, has changed his name and started a new life, but Una, now 27, tracks him down and confronts him, with her anger and curiosity. She believes she was in love with him at age 12.

The play has been staged at London's West End, off-Broadway in New York and in many other parts of the world. The Chinese premiere will be directed by French director Claudia Stavisky from Celestins Theater, the largest and oldest theater in Lyon, France.

Adult men's desire for much younger women has long been a taboo, yet common, phenomenon, whether it's in a developed society or in under-developed areas.

Stavisky says she even noticed a number of paedophilia cases in China.

The play is not meant to make any moral judgment or ideological statement, but rather, to explore the under-current of emotions in the people involved and find out what has been responsible for the tragedy.

The play is only one act and lasts for 90 minutes, with interactions between Ray and Una. The director says the audience will not see any violence onstage, but the atmosphere of violence will be irresolvable. .

Blackbird is the third play in a project at Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, aiming at introducing important plays from abroad and hiring foreign directors to work with Shanghai actors to create a Chinese production.

Zhou Yemang, an esteemed actor at SDAC, will play Ray in Blackbird.

Blackbird is different from all the other plays, and the rhythm is especially important and very difficult to get right, Zhou says.

Despite the hard work it takes, Stavisky wants the play to be an enjoyable experience for the audience.

"It's like an acrobatic performance. You will see the free, light and beautiful flow in the air, but not the hard practice that made it possible," she says.

If you go

7:30 pm, Tuesday-Saturday; 2 pm, Sunday; June 19-July 12. Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, 6F, 288 Anfu Lu (Road), Xuhui district, Shanghai. 021-6474-8600.