'Blackout Songs' Off-Broadway review — an unflinching dance through love and addiction

Read our review of Blackout Songs off Broadway, a new drama by Joe White starring Owen Teague and Abbey Lee at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space.

Summary

• Blackout Songs is a play about the troubled romance between two alcoholics
• The show is not a musical but has strong physicality and the intensity of a ballet or opera
• Owen Teague and Abbey Lee have great chemistry as the couple dealing with the fragmented and unreliable memories of their relationship

It doesn’t take long for the meaning of the play’s title, Blackout Songs, to hit. At least for the first half, the two characters’ interactions — mostly drunken nights out — are shown in fragmented scenes, wild with inebriated delight and red with violence. And while writer Joe White's show is decidedly not a musical, there is a certain songlike quality to the way the two wrestle with the fragility of their own memories.

Blackout Songs follows a young couple who meet at Alcoholics Anonymous and strike up a passionate relationship with each other, all while struggling with their own, and each other’s, addiction. White’s script keeps you doubting both characters as well as yourself. Poignant lines are said years later as if for the first time, like a repeating chorus. We see the beginnings of storylines we thought we already watched the end of. It’s difficult for both the characters and us to know if what they remember is real, invented, or lost to drink. Their attempts to fill in the gaps often take on a lyrical quality, trading back and forth with each other to add their own contributions in an attempt to reclaim, or remake, their lost memory.

The couple are known in the program simply as Him (Owen Teague) and Her (Abbey Lee), and we don't learn their proper names until the final scene. When their names are revealed, it’s almost disorienting, like a bright light being turned on in a dim room. While the audience has witnessed the ins and outs of their relationship, finally learning their names is an intimacy that turns them from fantasies into real people.

Blackout Songs is an unflinching depiction of addiction, told with the intensity of a ballet or an opera under the direction of Rory McGregor. Teague and Lee’s chemistry is electric and arrestingly physical, almost like watching a choreographed dance. Lee is particularly mesmerizing, and it’s difficult to keep your eyes off of her as she sweeps across the stage. When Her addresses the audience in the last scene, the rawness in Lee’s performance moved more than a few in my audience to tears.

Blackout Songs summary

A man and a woman meet one night at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He just went cold turkey, and she was dropped off against her will by a man who she says is waiting for her in the pub across the street. They gravitate to each other immediately and escape for a whirlwind night that blurs into an equally whirlwind relationship. Over more than a decade, they wrestle with their undeniable connection to each other as well as the pull of their addictions.

Blackout Songs comes to New York after several successful runs in London, where it earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Play in an Affiliate Theatre.

What to expect at Blackout Songs

Designer Scott Pask's set for Blackout Songs is deceptively simple. It’s sparsely made up to resemble a church basement, with a modest pulpit on the wall and a coffee station on the side for the AA meeting. But though the characters’ stint in AA is brief, the show returns to the themes of church more often than you’d imagine. With the help of the huge windows on the back wall and lighting design by Stacey Derosier, the space becomes a church nave in a later scene that revolves around a nighttime escapade to steal wine. It’s also the perfect setting for a funeral.

Blackout Songs is a story about addiction, and it doesn’t shy away from the bitter truths. While the relationship of Him and Her is intoxicating, it’s also weighed down by the fact that they are enabling each other’s alcoholism, no matter how much they may want or try to escape this fact.

What audiences are saying about Blackout Songs

Theatregoers have taken to social media to praise Blackout Songs in its early NYC performances.

• “‘Twas breathtaking!! Go see it y’all!!” - Instagram user @lukegilmore_
• “Amazing chemistry” - Instagram user @lelecat2020
• “Incredible work and acting!” - Instagram user @lenaadm15
• “Yeahhhh this production was absolutely stunning. Loved every single moment.” - Instagram user @clairellelogram

Read more audience reviews of Blackout Songs on Show-Score.

Who should see Blackout Songs

• Fans of small-cast plays will be caught up in the clever, heartwrenching script and the intensity of the two main characters.
• Theatregoers who recognize Abbey Lee or Owen Teague from their work in film & TV will want to see them make their NYC stage debuts with their magnetic performances in Blackout Songs.
• Audience members who are looking for a thoughtful, poetic depiction of the tragedy of alcohol addiction will resonate with the tender portrayal of these two characters. But be warned: there is no happy ending.

Learn more about Blackout Songs off Broadway

Blackout Songs is a heartfelt, heartbreaking portrayal of alcohol addiction. It’s the tragic love story of two people who can’t stay away from the other, even if they only bring out the worst in each other.

Learn more and get Blackout Songs tickets on New York Theatre Guide. Blackout Songs is at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space through February 28.

Photo credit: Blackout Songs off Broadway. (Photos by Emilio Madrid)