BIRDSONG AT THE ARTS THEATRE
James Esler and Max Bowden in the tunnel
How can a company of actors have an audience riveted to their seats for a marathon? Last night they had us in ten – minutes – after that no one moved an inch.We had taken the bait. Captivated by confidence, convinced by a cast who used the dark arts of the theatre, songs especially, to believe we were there, back in the time of the Great War.
Birdsong is a brilliant book. Sebastian Faulks wrote it 30 years ago when veterans of the First World War were still around. He was puzzled by the idea of a play - reluctant to make the transfer to stage. But once he saw the script he understood how much more a dramatic visual treatment might do.
This production tells a great tale so well. For the long first act there is no mention of war – James Esler as Stephen Wraysford is on a visit to a factory in Amiens ,one his Lincolnshire guardian is keen to acquire. There he plunges into the sufferings of the desperate workers on the brink of starvation – and falls deeply in love with Isabelle, Charlie Russell, wife of the sadistic René played with mean-spirited menace by a subtle Sargon Yelda. ( he later gives us the wise optimistic but buttoned -up Scottish survivor Captain Gray).Roger Ringrose as Bernard, a creepy friend of the family is pompously malevolent and another unpleasant tormentor in Isabelle’s sad unloved world. A visit from her sister Jeanne , (a warm bright performance from Natalie Radmall-Quirke) amplifies Isabelle’s dreadful abused life as a second spouse and underlines her trapped misery
All that changes for her in a passionate instant.
Sex scenes which warrant a warning in the theatre, make a major contribution to the story, tenderly acted by Isabelle and the adoring visitor. The actors throw off the trammels of restraint and create a joyous daring realisation of a profound first love..
After this dreamy world of sensual escape, the second Act full of rowdy soldier life. Stephen is the officer in a carefully crafted bunch of real-life soldiers, not two years into trench warfare. All are superb .Joseph Benjamin Baker is brilliant as an awkward needy ingènu, a butt of jokes, Raif Clarke is Tipper, a very young recruit who gives the sheer terror of life in the trenches his full force.Roger Ringrose is back as Barclay in brilliant rough form ( and great voice) . But James Findlay as Brennan was the musical heart of the entire play. His singing so lyrical so touching it created an entire level of sadness and mystery of its own. And Max Bowden was outstanding as Jack Firebrace, hero and family man, his vesion of an ordinary but deprived Sapper who had joined for the money – and the food that was ‘better than at home’ but whose letters from his wife Margaret and news of little son John, marks the eternal tragedy this violence – and become the lynch pin of the story.
This play deserves acclaim . It is the most watchable piece of drama about love and war I have seen on stage. It is remarkable what a group of actors can do.
Even if you’ve read the book – or especially if you have – Birdsong is unmissable
