The Birds has ended its run yesterday at the Gate Theatre and I can’t help feeling a bit empty, as if I’d seen familiar faces leaving. I’ve seen Ciarán on stage for The Seafarer and Burnt By the Sun but I think I loved The Birds more than the other ones. Not only because I thought that Nat’s character suited him even better than his previous roles.
After having seen the play several times, it was as if Nat, Diane and Julia had become parts of my inner world. I had been fascinated by Julia’s vigourous youth and vitality, moved by Nat’s human frailty and kindness, I had been sorry the neighbour (the excellent though uncredited Owen Roe) died eventually and I did understood the way Diane tried to make sense of the world with her writings. And every time I’ve seen Nat and Diane leave the stage, I’ve wondered about their future. Would they survive in a devasted world or would they be killed by the angry birds?
I won’t discuss here the play itself (I’ll probably do it later) but the way it was received and talked about by some reviewers, especially on the RTÉ show of October 27.
The most upsetting characteristic of these discussions was that the guests of the show (as did many reviewers and bloggers) talked about what they wanted to see, what they probably expected to see and NEVER what they had really seen.
One of the words that occurred most frequently in the discussion on RTÉ, was “scary” as if they wanted to attend some Halloween horror show. We are so used to see gore and disaster movies that we are becoming unsensitive to mere suggestion. Maybe some of the persons there would have liked to see Ciarán Hinds come on stage covered in blood. Anyway, although inspired by Du Maurier’s short story and Hitchcock’s film (and not “based on”) The Birds had other issues. The birds and the end-of-the-world context were only there as a setting for a philosophical, religious and moral reflection (we must not forget that McPherson studied philosophy at U.C.D -University College Dublin-). What becomes of individuals when their survival is at stake and when they have lost their bearings?
The result of these unfulfilled expectations is that, in spite of a packed theatre every night and the general satisfaction of the average audience, most of the reviews are not that good and that there is every likelihood that the play won’t go to London or Broadway after its Dublin run.
Ciarán Hinds and Sinéad Cusack were the guests of the RTE Afternoon Show on October 22.
Although the questions were the same as ever, it was a real treat to see these two great actors together. A charming hostess even fed them with some soup cooked earlier during the show!
For people who do not live in Ireland, we have made a sound recording. To hear it, click below and go to the Sound Clips section.
Sorprendente variazione della trama di Uccellidi Conor McPherson, che è stato anche un famoso film di Hitchcock: in una casa abbandonata durante una incombente e continua minaccia di morte, data dalla presenza di numerosi ed aggressivi uccelli, si ritrovano un uomo e una donna. Non si conoscono, sono diversi per cultura e carattere, ma devono ogni giorno inventarsi una strategia per sopravvivere. All’improvviso appare un terzo personaggio, una giovane ragazza… inizia un altro tipo di lotta per un altro tipo di sopravvivenza, quella affettiva o forse per la riproduzione, visto che forse al mondo sono rimasti solo loro…
Inutile dire sull’immensa bravura di Ciarán Hinds e di Sinéad Cusack, molto bene la giovane Denise Gough. Fondamentali gli effetti sonori di Simon Baker. Uno spettacolo da non perdere.
Eine erstaunliche Abänderung der Handlung von die Vögelvon Conor McPherson, welche auch im berühmten Film von Hitchcock vorliegt: in einem verlassenen Haus während einer andauernden und immer präsenten Bedrohung mit dem Tod, durch die Präsenz von unzähligen und aggressiven Vögeln, finden sich ein Mann und eine Frau wieder. Sie kennen sich nicht, sind aus unterschiedlichen Kulturkreisen und von verschiedener Wesensart. Man muss täglich neue Strategien zum Überleben finden. Unversehens mit dem Erscheinen einer dritten Person, eines jungen Mädchens, beginnt ein anderes Ringen, ein anderer Kampf ums Überleben, der vom Überleben oder sich Fortpflanzen, weil sie ja vielleicht die einzigen Überlebenden in der Welt sind.
Man muss keine Worte über die Fähigkeit von Ciarán Hinds und Sinéad Cusack verlieren, sehr gut war auch Denise Gough. Grundlegend waren auch die Soundeffekte von Simon Baker. Dieses Schauspiel sollte man nicht verpassen.
A surprising variation of the plot of The Birdsby Conor McPherson, which can be found already in Hitchcocks famous movie: a man and a woman find themselves trapped in an abandoned house while confronted with an overall threat of death from innumerable and aggressive birds. They are strangers to each other, from different backgrounds and of different natures. Survival strategies have to be found on a daily base. Suddenly with the appearance of a third party, a young woman, a different struggle begins, another fight for survival, that of survival and/or reproduction, since they might be the only ones left on the world.
No words are needed to describe the skills of Ciarán Hinds and Sinéad Cusack, and the very good young Denise Gough. Fundamental are the resonant effects of Simon Baker. It’s a show not to be missed.
“I have doubt about most things,” says Hinds, “but we all have to arrive, whatever happens, with the same intention, on the same evening, at the same time. There is no one way to do it – acting is a mystery.”
The Gate’s artistic director, Michael Colgan, says that Hinds and Sinéad Cusack [his co-star in The Birds ] “are on the top of every director’s wish list, actors at the very height of their careers, consummate in their skill and professionalism.”
“I don’t know,” Hinds shrugs. “I suppose I didn’t f**k up too much down the line. I suppose I didn’t bump into too much of the furniture.”
One of the first things that strikes the reader about Daphné Du Maurier’s 1952 short story, The Birds is how little she tells us. A war veteran Nat Hocken is out working on his land in Cornwall when he notices birds acting strangely. Their attacks begin as perhaps natural anomalies, but Daphné Du Maurier quicly builds the suspense (and it is short, short story) until we are plunged into something like the end of the world.[...]
Mc Pherson’s play takes only the phenomenon as the birds’ tidal attacks and the name of her protagonist. He then sets to work within the spirit of her idea but with a different set of circumstances. We meet Diane and Nat, two people who don’t know each other, who re seeking to survive the onslaught.[...]
A pervading theme in McPherson’s work is an assault on the quotidian from the “beyond” which reminds his characters of their place in the cosmos. [...]Yet while his characters are challenged by a sense of the beyond, his best plays are also somehow family plays. These people need each others because we – and they – often come to understand that they are each other. And if each consciousness is a kind of subjective mirror then the struggle must be to recognise our own image in the reflexion of the other, and so on, finally creating our own personal infinites within (From the playbill, by Emil Nowak).
The Birds
I won’t discuss here the play itself (I’ll probably do it later) but the way it was received and talked about by some reviewers, especially on the 
Ciarán Hinds and Sinéad Cusack were the guests of the RTE Afternoon Show on October 22.
Sorprendente variazione della trama 
Eine erstaunliche Abänderung der Handlung von 
“I have doubt about most things,” says Hinds, “but we all have to arrive, whatever happens, with the same intention, on the same evening, at the same time. There is no one way to do it – acting is a mystery.”