Blackbird

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More About

• David Harrower
• Stephanie Kerley Schwartz
• Sam Anderson
• Robin Larsen
• Corryn Cummins

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Privacy glass surrounds the break room of a pharmaceutical plant. The people inside need the protection. A young woman (Corryn Cummins) has arrived to confront the 55-year-old man (Sam Anderson) who slept with her when she was 12. A decade and a half later, he's moved on: After he was released from prison, he changed his name and settled into a stable life in middle management. She can't. But David Harrower's shifty drama goes bolder than the expected revenge arc as the pair recognize they still think of themselves not as victim and perp but as ex-girlfriend and ex-boyfriend. The lean, mean intermissionless production is built of clipped, overlapping dialogue, and director Robin Larsen is still helping the cast find their rhythm in the intense real-time conversation. Compact yet dense, Harrower's script is layered with questions about attraction, second chances and life-altering actions. It's tricky and daring and in peril of incensing those upset by the man's claim that the girl pursued him — and that he was no "sick bastard," but a 40-year-old man in love. Stephanie Kerley Schwartz's miserablist set captures the paranoid mood, as do the unnamed actors pacing the halls outside the room to make the couple increasingly jumpy, these bright blobs circling the showdown like sharks who smell blood. Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater, 5031 Pico Blvd., L.A.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 7 p.m.; Mon., July 11, 4 p.m.; Mon., July 18, 5 p.m.; thru July 25. (323) 422-6361, theatretheater.net.
Sun., June 5, 5 p.m.; Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays, 5 p.m.; Mon., July 11, 5 p.m.; Mon., July 18, 5 p.m. Starts: June 5. Continues through July 25, 2011