BY ALLIE BROWN | The Statesman When I walked into the theater on Saturday to see “The Birds” I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t read the short story by Daphne du Maurier nor seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie so I was able to watch the play with no previous expectations.
The acting was very good. There was a very small ensemble and they did a good job creating a world. All of the characters seemed realistic and reacted to the situations very much how I would expect someone being attacked by birds to act. Their relationships also seemed realistic. I was impressed with them.
The actors were also friendly after the show, spending time talking to the people who had seen the show. That wasn’t necessary for them to do and it added something special.
I thought the set was also very nicely done. It was a small set of a house. I thought the set designer did a good job filling the set with small pieces and decorations to make it seem, again, realistic. I also loved some of the small details like the blood on the wooden boards covering the doors and windows.
The special effects used in the production were decent as well. When the birds were attacking they would play birdcalls and make noises as if the birds were trying to get inside rather than try to show some sort of birds on stage. It was a good choice. Birds would’ve been difficult to do realistically. The only problem is that it could be a little distracting at times, but it still was better than trying to have birds on stage.
The lighting was done well. When it was night during the play it was actually very dark on stage and they would light candles. Then, when it became day, they would blow out the candles and turn on the lights. It was fun that the theatre actually smelled like candle smoke and it was a good way to show the passage of time.
The only issue I had with this play, unfortunately, was the story. It wasn’t a bad story by any means, but there were times it would get slow. There were a few scenes that seemed unimportant to the overall story or even to character development. However, I was happy with the overall plot and I enjoyed the ending quite a bit. There were a couple of different things I didn’t expect that were worth the slow scenes.
Overall, I thought the play was good, but not great. It all depends on what is worth $20 to you. There is a student discount so that brought it down to around $15. I enjoyed seeing it once but I would probably not go see it a second time. I think that if you enjoyed the short story or the movie, it is definitely worth a watch.