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Blackbird at SpeakEasy

By ED SIEGEL  |  February 25, 2009

Gammons and Wilder and Bassham do a sterling job with the spare, half-sentence dialogue that has its roots in Pinter and Mamet, even if the rawness of the emotions and the surprise twists and turns are closer to what goes on in Neil LaBute's dramatic universe. Gammons is Boston's master of ultra-violence. He won an Elliot Norton Award for Titus Andronicus before moving on to such pleasant ditties as John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

I won't say whether there's any violence in Blackbird, but the way Bassham slams a door or bats Wilder's tie away attests to Gammons's ability to transfer that punch in the stomach. And in this case, you needn't be a masochist to appreciate such a well-delivered blow.

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Related: Autumn garden, Perfect Tenn, Play by play: September 18, 2009, More more >
  Topics: Theater , Entertainment, John Webster, BLACKBIRD,  More more >
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ARTICLES BY ED SIEGEL
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  •   MAGIC TRICKS  |  November 11, 2009
    You have to give a seventysomething writer credit for daring to begin a book with “He’d lost his magic.”
  •   DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION  |  March 03, 2009
    There are some playwrights whose work makes you think that a night at the theater is going to be an eat-your-vegetables affair, but then you see a sharp production of one of their plays and you realize the menu is meatier than you had remembered.
  •   BLACKBIRD AT SPEAKEASY  |  February 25, 2009
    The year 2007 was a banner one for British theater.
  •   ROOTED  |  April 22, 2008
    Jhumpa Lahiri won a Pulitzer Prize with her first collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies .
  •   GAME FACES  |  March 04, 2008
    There’s something awe-inspiring about watching an ensemble in which everyone is performing at the top of his or her game.

 See all articles by: ED SIEGEL

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