Blackbird Theatre's 'Patty Hearst' feels like a rough draft

Jamie Weeder stars in the Blackbird Theatre's "Patty Hearst: The New Musical."

The irony of extremists who take themselves very, very seriously is this: you can’t help but laugh at them a little bit.

Why? Because more often than not, they lack self-awareness regarding their own blind spots, contradictions, and hypocrisies; they can’t truly hear other ideas and opinions, so steeped are they in self-righteousness; and despite living in a world rife with complexity, they refuse to truck in nuance.

Barton Bund’s “Patty Hearst: The New Musical,” now being presented by the Blackbird Theatre at the Sh\aut\ Gallery, necessarily confronts this extremist paradox. Telling the true story of the famous heiress who, at age 19, was kidnapped by a leftist urban guerilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army, the show follows Hearst through her confinement; her eventual “conversion” to becoming an SLA member herself; her arrest; and her trial. (The show is for mature audiences.)

Not surprisingly, the “extremist paradox” issue arises early in the show, when an SLA member reveals, through song, her dream to form a lesbian and gay army. Bund’s staging of the number, combined with Brian Carbine’s sexually playful choreography, seems to invite the audience’s giggles. Yet I felt conflicted about laughing at a woman who felt persecuted enough to hatch this ambition.

Yes, Bund and his team may have aimed to provoke this occasional, uncomfortable laughter as a means of balancing the scales (obviously, Hearst’s story is a dark one). But by and large, the production seemed to struggle to establish a consistent tone.

One element that sets the production apart, however, is its extreme intimacy — as in, “if you’re in the front row, tuck your feet under your chair and lean back.” The action is staged in-the-round, squeezing 12 performers into a tiny space that’s “in your face”; and when the performers dance or fight, you feel the movement in your bones. This seems fitting, thematically, since Hearst’s story is one of violation and vulnerability; why shouldn’t audience conventions be broken down, too?

But inevitably, the in-the-round staging strains against its limitations. Key moments — like Patty’s reaction to seeing her ex-fiancee when he visits her in prison, and her facial expressions while being questioned — were lost to me because of where I happened to sit.

Bund’s original score for “Hearst” ranges from coffee house folk to politically-charged rock. Many songs work well, but others (“Ghetto Appreciation Night” and one that Patty sings about pizza, to name two examples) left me wondering if they’d really earned their place in the two and a half hour show.

In addition, performers struggled mightily with their vocals on opening night. When singing with recorded accompaniment, actors often got out of sync momentarily; and pitch was a recurring problem, particularly for Steven O’Brien (Teko) and Joe Kathrein (Cujo/Steve Weed), both of whom had featured solos. Similarly, the ensemble’s execution of Carbine’s choreography was pretty rough, suggesting that the cast could have used a longer rehearsal period.

Even so, Jamie Weeder’s performance as Hearst was engaging and honest, carrying us through the heiress’ bizarre journey. And certain members of the ensemble — Ruell Black as Prophet Jones, Chelsea Sadler as Gelina, Gayle Martin as Yolanda, and Analea Lessenberry as Wendy Yoshimura — make significant contributions by way of subtle, small moments.

Ultimately, Patty Hearst’s story is a psychologically tangled and highly complicated one; and while I appreciated learning more about it this dark chapter of American history by way of Bund’s show, I couldn’t help but feel that some of its crucial parts (a bank robbery Hearst participated in, SLA’s safe house showdown with police, Hearst’s trial) got short shrift — not to mention the fact that the way they’re staged may not make the events clear to those unfamiliar with Hearst’s tale.

So although there’s solid potential on display in “Hearst," the show still felt, on opening night, like a very rough draft, both on the page and the stage.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.