David Harrower’s searing drama “Blackbird,” a play about a young woman who confronts the man who sexually abused her as a 12-year-old child, is familiar to regular theatergoers. The highly regarded play — justly so, in my view — was memorably staged in Chicago at the Victory Gardens Theater in 2009 with Mattie Hawkinson and Billy Petersen. And it was seen on Broadway in 2016 with Michelle Williams and Jeff Daniels. I won’t easily forget either staging.

But this is no longer 2016, and I didn’t think anyone would rush to stage this play in Chicago again. It has attracted criticism for seeming to humanize the abuser (similar charges, of course, were made against Bruce Norris’ superb “Downstate,” which looked at this issue in a rather more expansive way). I was wrong about that: “Blackbird” is now being staged by The New Theatre Project, which has made a name for itself by putting on shows on the factory floor at Servi-Sure, a North Side manufacturing facility that makes titanium anodizing racks. Bonus reader points if you know what that means.)

Director Spencer Huffman’s production takes place inside the low-slung industrial building at Servi-Sure, but in the break room rather than in the factory (although you do walk through the floor to get to the performance space, past a cool photography exhibit which offers a bonus to attendees).

If you know “Blackbird,” you know that its single, two-person scene takes place in a break room. The now adult Una (Olivia Lindsay) has come to talk to Ray (Todd Wojcik) at his workplace — specifically in the break room at his workplace. Olivia and the audience are never entirely clear what Ray now does, exactly. We know he has been to prison for the crime of having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old. He may now be a security guard or a janitor, although he could also be a manager of some kind. Una doesn’t know what he is now. Just what he did to her.

Whatever Ray is doing for a living, the play is set entirely in a break room and basically the audience piles into exactly what I’ve always imagined to be the setting of the drama: a drab room with microwaves, popcorn, refrigerator, vending machines and the kind of tables and chairs that seem to be purchased only for rooms such as this one.

It’s not clear, by design, where the real Servi-Sure break room ends and the fictional set begins. New Theater Project can get maybe 60 or 70 people in there, hugging the walls and watching as two damaged people negotiate and fight.

Todd Wojcik and Olivia Lindsay in “Blackbird” by The New Theatre Project at the Servi-Sure factory in Chicago’s Bowmanville neighborhood. (George Hudson)

The acting is formidably intense, especially from Lindsay, whose gutsy performance is really something in terms of its veracity, intensity and vulnerability. Ray is mostly on the defensive in this play but that quality in a role can really tax an actor (it’s harder to play) and Wojcik captures the character most skillfully. Huffman’s direction knows when to hit the brakes and when to let the actors bounce off the walls, rhetorically and physically.

You should know that “Blackbird” does not make excuses for sexual abuse, even if it explores the depths of human complexity. But you should also note that this play is a tough watch and will be something that some readers simply will not care to experience for 85 minutes, especially in so small a performance area; I’ve long admired Harrower as a writer but I don’t think a play quite like this would be written now, and for good reason. Especially not by a man.

Still, watch “Blackbird” now and you think of course of the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and all the enablers walking free on the planet — and maybe subject to being the recipient of a visitor, or visitors, one day at the office. But, of course, you also think of Virginia Giuffre, whose pain was such that she did not wish to continue living. All of that will swirl in your head as you watch two fine performances within an unstintingly disturbing piece of dramatic writing.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

Review: “Blackbird” (3.5 stars)

When: Through Nov. 23

Where: The New Theatre Project at Servi-Sure, 2020 W. Rascher Ave.

Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Tickets: $45 at thenewtheatreproject.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/04/review-blackbird-play-servi-factory/