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ED2013 4/5 Reviews ED2013 Theatre Reviews
Birdhouse (Jammy Voo)
By Gavin Leech | Published on Wednesday 14 August 2013
Funny and crazed musical expansion of Hitchcock’s horror The Birds. Four near-identical extras – uptight, obsessive birdwatchers – sing, wail, and play, trapped in a cinema, first by homicidal birds and then by bird trauma. (Voyeurs make good historians.) It’s both goofy and really rich in metaphor, but the symbolism is sometimes unclear, the narrative making room for pensive interpretative bits where the women rage and confess and become birds. The songs are fantastic, with Emily Kreider’s manic holler leading their harmonies through dark, epic folk, including powerful original compositions by Greg Hall. Shout out for the shadow puppetry, an entrancing road trip and light violence. The birds themselves are given a voice, the monsters empathised with and, eventually, freed.
Assembly George Square, until 25 Aug, 5.30pm.
tw rating 4/5 │ [Gavin Leech]
