Blackbird

At his workplace, 55-year-old Ray Brooks is visited by a young woman, 27-year-old Una Spencer. Fifteen years earlier, they had an abusive sexual relationship for three months when Una was twelve and Ray was forty; subsequently, Ray had been jailed for three years for statutory rape.

Ray in shock and desperation takes Una to the office break room, where the two engage in a long and difficult confrontation involving Una’s continuing struggles to understand and come to terms with the abuse and how this has affected her years after the event. The fearful Ray, who had tentatively begun to forget the past, parries her demanding questions and descriptions of her feelings and experiences, all the while uncertain of her intentions.

It is difficult, awkward material which should cause discomfort. The play at first glance sounds straightforward, abuser is rightly prosecuted by courts carrying out society’s wishes. Subjectively, one might feel that the courts must ensure that the perpetrator is punished at least as much as the victim suffered and a little extra to act as a deterrent. But can any court really mete out appropriate punishment – when is the punishment enough…?