'…blackbird hour' review — this play is a bleak and unsettling look at the difficulties of helping a friend in a mental health spiral

Read our review of …blackbird hour, a powerful debut play by babirye bukilwa, now in performances at the Bush Theatre to 1 March.

How do you support someone going through a crisis in their mental health? Poet and playwright babirye bukilwa’s …cake ran at Theatre Peckham in 2021, but their first play is …blackbird hour: a dark and unrelenting exploration of one woman’s mental collapse, friendship, and what it means to care.

Eshe is in bed after injuring her leg. As well as the damage to her body, Eshe becomes trapped in a downward spiral of self-loathing. There are many factors at play: we learn she has lost her mother, broken up with her girlfriend, and rejected her ex-boyfriend Michael. Her friends want to comfort and help, but are persistently pushed away by her increasingly erratic behaviour.

Evlyne Oyedokun is suitably chaotic as Eshe – drinking heavily, smoking weed amid rubbish strewn over her bed, and lashing out at everyone. It is a physically raw performance of a woman spiralling into self-destruction. Oyedokun deftly creates an often unlikable character through her hurtful language, but also elicits huge sympathy.

Eshe’s two friends and ex-lovers represent the differing ways people struggle to approach someone they love who is in crisis. Olivia Nakintu gives straight-laced Ella an earnest kindness, but also a feeling of self-imposed distance. Her matching yellow raincoat, backpack and cycling helmet starkly contrast with Eshe’s soiled bed and clothing.

Ivan Oyik’s loyal Michael shows wide-eyed concern and affection, reassuring Eshe of her brilliance. When Oyik holds her like a child, gently cleaning her face after she vomits, it is one of the play’s most poignant moments. Both characters just want Eshe to get well, but also clash hugely with each other. Some of the most interesting dialogue comes when they argue about their opposite approaches to the situation.

Heard as pre-recorded audio, Danielle Kassaraté provides the voice of Eshe’s late mother Sissy. Kassaraté conveys criticism, concern, judgement and love in words that appear to be both memories and imagined comments.

Director malakaï sargeant, who also directed …cake, uses every part of the Bush’s small studio, with the show almost spilling out into the audience to reflect the claustrophobia of the events we are watching.

Will Monks’s immersive video projections of the dialogue on the stage’s back wall have a dual purpose of aiding accessibility and creating a dreamlike environment as words blur and drift off.

Research has shown that despite higher prevalence, Black adults have the lowest mental health treatment rate of any ethnic group. …blackbird hour contains fleeting references to the failures of and racism within mental health services for Black people; further exploration of this would have been welcome.

…blackbird hour was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, the Bruntwood prize and the Alfred Fagon award, and it often feels like a fluid and graceful stream of poetic consciousness. However, at times, bukilwa’s writing is also a little clunky and expositional. There is no lightness or humour to contrast with the persistent darkness, and their focus on trauma and mental collapse makes this a visceral, yet difficult, watch.

…blackbird hour is at the Bush Theatre to 1 March. Book …blackbird hour tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: …blackbird hour (Photos by Seye Isikalu)