York Theatre Royal – until 9 June 2018
Reviewed by Marcus Richardson
4****
I went to see Birdsong at the York Theatre Royal, a tale of conflict, love and friendships. The play is set during World War 1 leading up to the battle of the Somme. The play looked at the men who dug tunnels underneath enemy lines to set explosives. Jack Firebrace is the energy of the group and leads the other diggers as the father of the group, as he seen sleeping on the job by lieutenant Stephen Wraysford, a man getting closer and closer to the one he loves in grace.
The actors had a big job in working with the play which gripped the audience at at points the audience was just stunned with silence. The actor who played Jack, Tim Treloar, did a fantastic job at making the audience laugh and creating a warming environment even though it was very clear that they were in trenches and at war. Stephen Wraysford was played by Tom Kay, the lieutenant is first seen as cold and distant but thought out the place we learn more about his superstitious views and his reading of entrails, Kay did a very good job at giving the performance just the right amount of emotion, going in between past and present we see two different character a man in love and a man at war, his ability to switch in an instant is interesting to watch and done seamlessly. The whole cast worked so well together you felt the bond that each character had on stage from the friendships in the trench to the lovers in France. Working with such an emotional performance the whole cast knew what they were doing and did it well.
The costumes were very realistic, true the time and those not in uniform suited characters very well. The set was clever in creating the feel of trenches and tunnels with the use of a single wood support arch during scenes when in the tunnels and dim lighting on the action while the rest of the stage is in black. When going in back in time to when things were better, the lighting had a warmer glow and the stage was manipulated with a wall that had the insides of house one one side, during these scene it didn’t feel like that 2 minutes ago it was used a battle field. One of the most shaking parts was how demanding the explosions were, it scared the audience and rumbled the building, most explosions happened in the tunnel and a dash of colours were used on the back of the stage, this was very effective in the dark and really worked in showing how powerful they were.
The show flew by and there wasn’t a moment where I wasn’t engaged with the action on stage. The emotion of the audience was played with in such a masterful way, and while we had the sense of war, I for one enjoyed looking into the life of the Tommys. I would recommend it to anyone obviously it’s not suitable for young kids but the play was both educational with a look into life for soldiers and interesting to watch.