In this lifeless production, we follow the tale of a young woman, Skildir, as she struggles to cope with life in a secluded island community and an abusive stepfather. I’d like to elaborate on the plot further but, well, nothing really happened. Girl meets boy, girl talks to disconcerting puppet children, girl performs legally questionable deeds. That’s unfair - there was some death, too. It’s not necessarily a problem with the story itself per se but in the execution. It was all rather bland.
The show raises some important issues, yet there are so many crammed into so little time that none of them are fully explored. For example, it appeared that multiple characters were self-harming: though their motivation was obvious, we never learnt precisely why they had to turn to this specific end. These characters have a close connection and both happen to have been driven to extremes -this has to be worth further development. The production trundled along, throwing ideas out here and there, then suddenly the climactic moment came out of nowhere. It was a genuine shock but probably not for the right reasons: I just couldn’t understand why. It felt extreme for the same of extremity.
This could also have been caused by characterisation issues. Performances all across the board were flat, lacking energy and spark, making it difficult to sympathise or engage with our protagonists. Even in moments of heightened emotional drama I just couldn’t forge a connection. Skildir’s stepfather and the family midwife injected some more life into the production, though this caused problems of its own: I cared more about the stepfather’s character arc than Skildir’s. This isn’t supposed to happen! I don’t want to sympathise with the bad guy! It makes it very hard to condone our protagonist’s actions when you can’t sympathise with them.
It is a shame that the show became so boring so quickly because the opening scene was charming and beautifully executed. The way in which each of the birds is represented was creative and quirky - I just wish this could have extended to the rest of the play.
What this needs is more power. More emotion, more energy, more pain. Simply more. Give it a kick-start with some life and you have the makings of something truly moving.
