Tony Naumovski and Antoinette LaVecchia(photo credit: Carol Rosegg)
If you are as curious as I to see how Conor McPherson’s
adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s short story “The Birds” stacks up against Alfred
Hitchcock’s scary and much discussed if also inscrutable film version, then
head over to 59E59 where, in their tiniest venue, you are squeezed into a tiny open
space to feel the claustrophobia and the dread experienced by the play’s three
characters. I must admit that I am not familiar with the short story (written
in 1953) but have seen and enjoyed the film (1963) numerous times. The first
thing you have to accept is that there is only a very little overlap in story,
concept or style between the film and this otherwise cleverly minimalist staging
by director Stefan Dzeparoski for his Birdland Theater and first seen at Origin’s
1st Irish Festival 2016.
Three excellent actors are playing just four roles and like
the film they are holed up in a tightly boarded house that is under siege from vicious
attacking birds of all kinds. Evidently birds are out to get us humans and have
gathered their forces all over the world. To be sure it’s that rare species
known as science fiction theater, but what has been staged is theatrically compelling,
if not always comprehensible. Don’t expect to recognize any of the characters
or situations that you remember from the film but simply accept McPherson’s version
as curious as any to get your own feathers aflutter.
Taking refuge together are a big hulking bruiser Nat (Tony
Naumovski) who suffers from occasional mental seizures and an unnerved novelist
Diane (Antoinette LaVecchia) who doesn’t quite trust Tony but worries more
about Julie (Mia Hutchinson-Shaw) the strange, sexy and unsettling young woman
who seeks shelter and possibly more from Nat.
More intriguing than the erotically charged goings on is the
production design by Konstantin Roth (set) David J. Palmer (video) , Ien Denio
(sound) that surround the closely compacted audience with disquieting noises
and a visual eeriness that helps to contain the mood of this occasionally
provocative 90 minute production. The three actors share the same tense world,
presumably a farm house in New England, and interact extraordinarily well under
the circumstances. If you don’t look for anything close to the short story or film
version, you might just find all kinds of ways to interpret what is essentially
an allegory about humanity out of control and nature in revolt.
“The Birds” (through October 1)
At 59E59
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