Both stimulating and demanding, babirye bukilwa’s …blackbird hour is challenging stuff at the Bush Theatre
“I want to be alone, with my own breath and that”
babirye bukilwa’s …blackbird hour arrives at the Bush Theatre’s Studio as a finalist for the Bruntwood Prize, Women’s Prize for Playwriting and the Alfred Fagon Award and you can kinda see why. Always obtuse and increasingly abstract, it is a challenging portrayal of how all-consuming and isolating a mental health crisis can be, both for those experiencing it and for those who would care for them.
Eshe is a queer Black woman who has retreated into herself after a nasty car accident. Caught in a self-destructive spiral, she’s trying to block out the entreaties of her ex-girlfriend Ella and bestie-who-would-be-more Michael to let her in the flat. Ignoring her text messages and haunted by the spirit of her mother, Eshe sets about writing a crucial letter to explain how she feels about not getting the kind of love she needs.

This is all to flatten out something that is much more conjectural and complex in its staging. malakaï sargeant’s direction embraces its contemporary artistic leanings, reflecting the way that bukilwa’s writing amps up the strangeness as Eshe’s mental state declines. Words dissolve, coherence deteriorates, Khadija Raza’s inventive design along with Will Monks’ video take us to mad places without feeling the need to explicate.
The result is both stimulating and demanding, no easy answers on offer but bukilwa is showing us why that is the case – mental health issues rarely get wrapped up neatly with a bow, especially for people like Eshe. Evlyne Oyedokun plays her with all the spikiness that is needed to fully convince, Olivia Nakintu’s Ella and Ivan Oyik’s Michael also impress as the friends, who for different reasons, aren’t equipped to provode the help that is needed. Bracingly good.