Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 11 June 2014
‘Little Bird’ is a State Theatre production in association with the Adelaide Festival Centre and co-presented by the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. It is a new solo performance work and features the inimitable Paul Capsis, who is the perfect choice for the show.
The creative team includes the likes of Geordie Brookman (Director), Nicki Bloom (Playwright), Cameron Goodall (Composer), Quentin Grant (Composer/MD) and Geoff Cobham (Set & Lighting Designer). They are all celebrated award winners with impressive CVs and, with the support of other talented and well credentialed musicians, choreographers and sound designers one would expect a quality result.
The show looked striking: the set and the lighting were stunning, with surprise after surprise. The original songs were delivered with the usual style and idiosyncratic bravura that is the trademark of Capsis. The original music was masterfully performed by Belinda Gehlert (violin), Harley Gray (double bass), Jonathan Sickerdick (percussion) and Dylan Woolcock (guitar). And so on. All the production elements were as good as the State Theatre has ever managed. However, take all this away and what you are left with is the bare text, the story, the raw material with which the company must deal with, and unfortunately it is not robust stuff, and the show ultimately suffers because of it. The production elements needed to be first rate, and it needed someone like Capsis, otherwise the whole thing would have been tedious and trifling.
‘Little Bird’ is the story of Wren, a young boy, who is born to doting parents whose marriage ultimately breaks down leaving Wren in the care of his father. Eventually tiring of a sheltered and isolated existence, Wren leaves home and sets out into the wide world to discover himself. He falls in love, marries, and falls out of love. He makes the acquaintance of a cross-dressing ex-woodcutter (and this is where the narrative really takes a turn for the worst – surely Monty Python have said all that needs to be said on that subject!), and eventually the circle of life returns him back to where he started. It’s a story of self-discovery and it has been told many times in many different guises, and probably doesn’t need to be told again. Indeed, Bloom’s text offers us nothing new, and one member of the audience was heard to mutter ‘derivative’ as she left after the final curtain went down.
But, such misgivings aside, the production is strangely appealing. It was so easy to get lost in Capsis’ artistry, and the music, and the lighting, and the magical forest that appears on stage, and the house that deconstructs itself. It draws you in, and shuts the real world out for an hour, which feels longer, and the audience were demonstrably appreciative.
Kym Clayton
When: 6 to 22 Jun
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
