...blackbird hour, Bush Theatre review

babirye bukilwa’s debut play is an unflinching expose of psychosis and manic depression, and the impact it can have on our relationships, love and identity.

 ...blackbird hour at the Bush Theatre. Photo credit Seye Isikalu.

...blackbird hour is unafraid to make its audience uncomfortable. Protagonist Eshe (Evlyne Oyedokun) hasn’t left the flat in days. An unmade bed fills the small stage of the Bush Theatre, surrounded by a mess of dirty laundry, crisp packets and empty takeaway containers. She smokes joints and swigs from bottles of whiskey, lost in the sea of her own mind and veering unsettlingly between laughter, fury and tears.

We have no choice but to enter her intimate world, unable to turn away from her most vulnerable moments. It is an intense and visceral confrontation with the challenges of mental health, grief and loneliness, and how they affect our loved ones as well as ourselves.  

bukilwa’s script, which was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, is fragmented and poetic. Eshe’s disturbed monologues are interrupted by the disembodied voice of her dead mother (Danielle Kassaraté) whose heavy presence lingers over the stage. Their speech is layered together, at times overlapping, in a taunting back and forth which both mourns Eshe’s loss and evokes the frustration and difficulties of their relationship.

Despite its urgency, ...blackbird hour takes a while to build momentum. At 90 minutes it feels slightly too long, and there are points of repetition where tension is lost. However, it is buoyed by experimental staging and sound design. Creative captioning is used cleverly: on a screen behind the actors, their lines are projected, appearing and melting away with a fluidity that matches Eshe’s mental instability. Jahmiko Marshall’s lighting bathes the drama in a spectral blue wash, and frenetic renditions of disco classics are used to jarring and manic effect.

Eshe’s fragility is heightened by the presence of Ella, her ex-girlfriend, and childhood friend and love interest Michael. The competition for Eshe’s care played out between the two highlights the complexity of looking after those with severe mental health issues. In particular, Olivia Nakintu’s Ella brilliantly captures the complex mix of frustration, overwhelming sense of responsibility and deep concern.

When Eshe reaches breaking point, Ella and Michael are forced to seek medical intervention. They themselves become manic in their desire to make her well, robotic figures with plastered on grins and stiff-armed movements, standing guard by her bedside armed with glasses of water and suggestions of restorative trips to the seaside.

It is in this shift in character that the play reaches its crux, asking its central question of how our mental health impacts our identity and belonging. ...blackbird hour is a difficult but necessary drama – and one whose chilling impact lingers long beyond the the four walls of the theatre.

Date: until 1 March 2025.  Location: Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Rd, London W12 8LJ. Price: from £15. Book now.

Review by Ellen Hodgetts