O for a Muse of Covid Creativity
A deck for a stage, an MFA grad to act
Sunflowers and bamboo that would ascend
The brightest heaven of Invention!
Then should a people pleaser
Enter to tell her history
with humor, wit and sadness
all in a backyard.
For the first post-pandemic, live in-person show, I had the honor to be invited to review Blackout-Recovering from Trauma on a Porch, a hilarious but insightful one-person show, by Hailey Henderson. Using humor, insight, brilliant comic timing and an excellent script, Henderson dissects three abusive relationships, and her struggles to break free and recover.
Although Covid may have forced the play to be performed outside, the backyard setting was perfect and extremely pleasant on this mild summer evening. Fortunately, between the back of the house and the garage is a deck, which served as a stage, behind the deck was a fence, which along with some bamboo perfectly framed the “stage.”
Henderson depicts the survival instincts of anybody, who has ever been in a relationship with a control freak; how one adapts, how one negates oneself, and how one becomes a volunteer for the next abuser. All the while she exposes her own quirky vulnerability, and kept the audience laughing with her self-deprecating humor, as she evolves from a self-effacing survivor to a free agent in control of her destiny.
Although one-person shows are notorious difficult to direct, under Valerie Curtis-Newton’s direction, there was never a dull moment, and Henderson immediately connected with the audience and caught their attention.
Towards the end, the play takes a rather maudlin turn and it never actually tackles the ultimate question: how and why she initially developed bad taste in men and made unhealthy choices, but the 60 minutes of humor and superb acting more than made up for Psychology 101.
I heartily recommend this play for all women; as Keira Knightly has so poignantly said, every woman alive had suffered some form of sexual abuse, and this play more than expertly describes the shame, self-doubt and secrecy women feel about it. 60 minutes of laughter is not easy to find these days. It plays in Seattle for only two more nights, before going on tour.
Blackout-One Woman Show. by Hailey Henderson. Only two more nights. Fri and Sat July 8, 9 7;30 pm. Tickets Available: https://www.haileyhenderson.com/tickets. nfo: www.haileyhenderson.com
Tour Dates:
Portland: July 14-15
Eugene: July 17-18**
LA: July 23, 24
Salt Lake City: July 31
Great Salt Lake City Fringe: July 30-August 8**
Moab, UT : August 13, 14**