Reviews

Birdland by British playwright Simon Stephens belongs to that long tradition of stories about immoral rock stars lost to fame and the hedonism of, well, sex, drugs and rock n roll.  

One night in Moscow, bored on tour, Paul (played with a charming, almost ordinary cruelty by Graeme McRae) seduces his best mate’s beloved, fragile girlfriend (Louise Harding). The next morning she jumps from the hotel’s top floor.

Every year Dramatic Productions showcases brilliant new talent. Last year it was a very young Alex Clubb shining through Catch Me If You Can. This year’s revelation is Meaghan Stewart as Mrs Lovett. She blew me away! Stage presence, comic timing, accent spot on, even when singing her lively By the Sea against a near comatose David Pearson (Sweeney Todd) was just fantastic, and her Not While I’m Around was caring and mature. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after reading that she’s only in Year 12.

Directing a successful farce depends on timing, for without it, punch-lines fall flat and physical comedy bombs. Director of Tea Tree Players’ No Sex Please, We’re British, Damon Hill clearly understands this genre; not relying on the joke-laden script, he manages to illicit more comedy through visual cues and slapstick. He has assembled a fine cast who obviously have done a lot of work on characterisation and deliver gags with confidence.

Anyone who’s attended a trial, in whatever capacity, knows that there’s a considerable element of theatre involved.  The rhetoric, the probing of character and motive, the excesses of emotion, the wigs and costumes, and the uncertainty of outcome.  Yan Duyvendak and Roger Bernat were fascinated by the ‘Byzantine dynamics’ of the Guantanamo trials of alleged terrorists in which traumatised prisoners could hardly string sentences together, but were repeatedly told, ‘Please continue.’