The Artful Traveler: “Bloody Blackbeard”

Bloody Blackbeard

Triad Stage

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

My visit to Triad Stage in Greensboro for a showing of Bloody Blackbeard Saturday night was a great introduction not only to this regional stage, opened in 2002, but to the downtown revitalization it has encouraged.

The play benefited from two successful conceits. It’s a trio of present-day kids digging at the beach by the light of the full moon that sets the play in motion. That swath of beach becomes a haunted house as a chest they discover turns into the doorway through which a young Blackbeard emerges to tell his tale. Which brings us to the other great conceit: there are three Blackbeards in this production, which one might waggishly call small, medium and large, and at times all three of them appear on stage together.

It’s this vehicle that writer and director Preston Lane uses to put some meat on the bones of the legend, to make Blackbeard a little less of a caricature and a little more of a human being. So we experience not only his precipitant violence but also his moments of conscience and self-doubt, we understand his driving force to be remembered, and we imagine that love might, albeit briefly, be the force that keeps this violent man from fulfilling his destiny.

This is Triad Stage’s biggest production, with 19 actors playing more than 80 characters. Their performances are well underscored by beautiful and haunting original music by Polecat Creek’s Laurelyn Dossett as well as Molly McGinn, played by musicians in period costumes, effortlessly moving in and out of the action on stage. Pirates took similar liberties with the audience, dashing and shouting from one end of the house to the other. The imaginative set design used a mainsail as a projection screen that occasionally framed the musicians in silhouette, and if audience members on the stage level were so inclined, they could wiggle their toes in sand, which added a final layer of verisimilitude.

In its writing, acting, staging and music, Bloody Blackbeard is a thoroughly engaging theatrical experience. But are its imaginings the final word on the Blackbeard myth and legend? The play’s last word is as good a guide as we’re going to get: “Dig!”

To emerge from Triad Stage on a Saturday night is to appreciate the power of this renovated Montgomery Ward building to contribute to the revitalization of an urban downtown long underutilized. This swath of historic Elm Street was alive with restaurants, delis, coffee shops, and music clubs as well as artist galleries and performance spaces. In the vicinity you’ll find Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, an experimental museum sculpted from a former thrift store; several public art pieces including a “circle gate” by artist Jim Gallucci, and the historic Carolina Theater, now in its 80th year.

Bloody Blackbeard runs through July 6, 2008. Visit Triad Stage for details, including music clips. The United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro is your guide for arts activities around town. Plan your visit with the help of the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau.  Hear songwriter Laurelyn Dossett talk about the music in Bloody Blackbeard, and catch a song clip, in this podcast from the NC Department of Cultural Resources.