BLACKBIRD's Jeff Daniels On Doing The Plays That Scare You

"The first time I visited the Grand Canyon, I froze," writes Jeff Daniels in The New York Times. "Try as I might, it was too much to take in."

It's an experience he compares with his first time acting in David Harrower's Olivier Award-winning drama Blackbird in a 2007 Off-Broadway production for Manhattan Theatre Club. Back then his director was Joe Mantello and his co-star was Alison Pill. Tonight Daniels opens in a new Broadway production of Blackbird. Mantello directs again but this time he's joined by Michelle Williams.

The actor calls it a "soul-scorcher of a play. Two characters - a man, Ray, and a young woman, Una - confront each other 15 years after their very illegal relationship, when he was 40 and she was all of 12. The play is brutally unforgiving and requires an emotional commitment that is difficult to rise to once, let alone eight times a week."

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BLACKBIRD tells the story of Una and Ray. Fifteen years earlier they had a relationship and haven't set eyes on each other since. Now she's found him again. BLACKBIRD premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival before moving on to London's West End where it won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in a production directed by Peter Stein. The drama was subsequently produced in New York by Manhattan Theatre Club in a production starring Jeff Daniels and Allison Pill, directed by Joe Mantello.

Photo: Brigitte Lacombe