I won’t lie, sometimes my job has some great perks to it! This week I got to take a trip down to the Rose Theatre in Kingston to attend the press day of BLACKBIRD – a show we have coming to us at the Playhouse later this month.

This new venue was fairly impressive and Kingston is a beautiful part for the world, but I must admit that the highlight of the day was finally getting to see this fantastic show. About 2 months ago I read the script for BLACKBIRD on a train in just over an hour. That is unheard of when it comes to my attention span but I was gripped by David Harrower’s story. Ever since that journey I kept finding myself believing that I had in fact seen the play itself because the words had conjured up such vivid images in my mind. So, I was happy to finally be given the chance to see the text performed and what a mighty performance it was too.

Dawn Steele of Monarch of the Glen fame played the central female role of Una , but for me Robert Daws - one of the most familiar faces of British TV (The Royal, Roger Roger and Jeeves and Wooster to name but a few), playing the part of Ray , stole the show. His performance was so very powerful it made his character both disgusting and endearing at the same time.

The story of BLACKBIRD is far too complicated for me to go in to now but I urge everyone to see this show and then buy the play-text (available in all good bookshops!) as I truly believe it will be a piece that sticks with me for the rest of my life.

After watching the show we were given the chance to not only meet the actors, Dawn and Robert , but the director, David Grindley , and the writer himself, David Harrower . It was a fantastic day and well worth the long train journey there and back. I am excited to see how the production looks here at the Playhouse and I do hope you will take a chance on it too!

See you there!

p.s. BLACKBIRD plays at Oxford Playhouse from Tuesday 22 - Saturday 26 April .