Abbey Lee and Owen Teague on leading the intimate, intoxicating 'Blackout Songs' off Broadway

In their NYC stage debuts, the actors navigate the hazy, heady landscape of addiction and romance in Joe White’s visceral memory play that was lauded in London.

Summary

• Actors Abbey Lee and Owen Teague discuss starring in Blackout Songs off Broadway
• Joe White's Olivier-nominated play follows the troubled 12-year relationship between two people who meet at an AA meeting and relapse
• The show explores memory through the distorted lens of addiction and the dark but still-potent side of romance

In the dim, sterile light of an Off-Broadway rehearsal room, Owen Teague and Abbey Lee are engaged in a dance of shared delusion and devastating truth. As they traverse a 12-year timeline of a relationship fueled, and ultimately fractured, by alcohol, the air in the room thickens. Under the watchful eye of director Rory McGregor, the two actors are preparing to make their NYC stage debuts in Joe White’s Blackout Songs, a drama that redefines the “memory play” genre by viewing the past through the distorted lens of addiction.

A 2023 Olivier Award-nominated London hit, the show is set to make its U.S. premiere from January 15 to February 28 at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space. Blackout Songs is not a linear romance; it is an abstract journey of two unnamed characters, known simply as Him (Teague) and Her (Lee). They meet at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting only to immediately flee to a pub, beginning a cycle of “blackout” memories where the audience, and the characters, must piece together what is real and what has been lost to the bottle.

“I’d never read anything like it,” said Teague, a rising Hollywood star whose recent work includes Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Even as he continues to pursue screen projects, the pull of White’s script was undeniable. “I knew I was going to do it, but I didn’t want to say yes. I was scared. I hadn’t done a play in a long time. It’s a place you have to commit yourself to go to.”

For Lee, known for Mad Max: Fury Road and Horizon: An American Saga, the play offered a rare opportunity to tackle writing that felt both contemporary and timeless. “There’s something about this play that has a Greek tragedy inside of it, but it’s so modern and abstract and strange,” Lee explained. “We just get to explore so many relationship changes and weird dynamics. We get to do so much in such a short space of time.”

The intimacy of the 90-minute production is heightened by its two-hander format. Unlike the fragmented nature of film, theatre provides a “propulsiveness,” as Teague put it. To maintain their vulnerability, the actors must rely entirely on each other; Lee recalled McGregor’s advice to simply lock into one another for support whenever the chaotic scenes become overwhelming.

That connection is vital because the play’s structure is as kaleidoscopic as its protagonists. White’s script uses spaces between dialogue to mark gaps in time and memory. To help the actors navigate this structure, White provided a detailed roadmap for them to use in the rehearsal room. “He’s written a timeline so we understand where we are, because it’s all distorted, and it’s her memory, and she’s mixed things up,” Lee said of her character.

The central tension of Blackout Songs lies in how the characters relate to their pasts. Teague sees Him as “future-facing,” constantly looking at the couple’s potential even when anchored by a “dismal past.” Lee views Her as a creature of the present, using storytelling to escape a past that “haunts” her. This escapism is inextricably linked to their drinking. “The booze allows me to trust, almost,” Teague admitted of his character. “When we’re drinking, it’s like I’m okay with us and I don’t worry so much [...] It’s awesome until it’s not.”

Interestingly, despite the play’s title, the production is largely devoid of music. There is only one moment when anyone actually sings: a stark, vulnerable karaoke scene performed while the characters are sober. This departure from their usual high-frequency chemical state carries a heavy weight. Without the protection of the “blackout,” the singing feels exposed and uncomfortable, an attempt to reclaim a joy that perhaps only existed in their shared delusion. It highlights the tragedy that for this pair, their “song” only sounds right when they aren’t fully there to hear it.

“Because the booze is introduced the minute they meet, it means they can never know what they would have been like if they met sober,” said Lee.

Both Teague and Lee are struck by the weight of performing such an intimate and “violent,” per Teague, exploration of love. He views theatre as a necessary challenge to our digital culture, forcing the viewer to “sit up close to something that’s kind of insane.” The play’s true power lies in the audience's proximity to the inescapable reality of two people who are perhaps too right for each other, yet entirely wrong for themselves.

In the end, Blackout Songs is less a cautionary tale and more a raw acknowledgement of the human condition. “Anyone living on this earth understands that beauty and pain come hand in hand,” Lee said. “But in a weird way, there’s also hope. It’s a devastating hope.”

It is a hope found in the wreckage, the idea that even when a connection is toxic, the love within it remains a valid, vital part of what it means to be alive.

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Photo credit: Abbey Lee and Owen Teague in rehearsal for Blackout Songs off Broadway. (Photos by Andrew Patino of Regular People)