In the basement theatre of the Erskineville Hotel is a play well worth seeing, newly developed through Fruit Box Theatre’s RIPE program. Back to Birdy is immersive, gentle on the senses, and while not completely polished, accomplishes more than I’ve come to expect from much larger-scale productions.
The play follows the course of a single night of catching up between two friends, Emily (Gemma Dart) and Warren (Hayden Moon), who have much more to say to each other than they thought. The play moves between their present and their past, and the two friends freely interact with their younger selves. The audience are seated at restaurant tables in the small space, and in the centre of us all, elevated on bar stools, are the two old friends — an island floating in the sea of our gaze. It was very eerie to watch the two characters discuss their feelings of isolation and pressure while dozens of eyes stare them down from other tables. I have rarely felt so aware of myself as an audience member.
I’m known for loving all theatre, but it’s rare that I recommend anything to my friends like I have Back to Birdy. This play is a powerful and realistic depiction of not just growing up gay but of getting older gay. The haunting sadness of having infinitely more knowledge than you once had — and the constant burning wish that you could go back in time and be a better friend, a better partner, a better confidant.
The first fifteen minutes of the play were, I’ll be frank, gratingly awkward. The actors felt like they were shaking off nerves, we had strange pauses that felt unnatural; we all shifted in our seats. But as the ice broke, Emily and Warren started to really interrogate and recontextualize each other’s memories, going off at each other, defending themselves; being vulnerable. Then the room filled with rich reality. The visceral nature of memory played out amidst the unusual performance space in the best possible way; my compliments go to a happy union of subject material and staging.
The discussion of the transphobia Warren has endured, and continues to endure, struck a particular chord with me. No other production I know of has been able to capture the way memories can brand us. Moments and conversations that meant little or nothing to our loved ones are the very same things that we remember and mull over every day of our lives. The sheer exhaustion of it, the mixture of shame and betrayal and fear. The line ‘I hoped you would see me as being the same, but more me…but you looked at me — like I was someone you didn’t know.’ hit me especially hard.
The exceptional handling of the transgender experience is what puts this play above so many, and Hayden Moon’s performance as Warren does a great script justice with gravitas, intelligence, and straight-forward sincerity. Angelica Lockyer’s performance as the younger Warren is a heartbreaking, but well-executed reflection of Moon’s older, happier man.
Gemma Dart as Emily had my attention from the first moment, and only got better as the performance leaned into natural, conversational humour and the all-too-relatable clumsy effort to connect. Emily is your lesbian friend from high school who knows nothing about trans people but is for sure trying her best; who you can’t help but love despite being a little defensive and a little juvenile. Dart nails the charm of an imperfect character, and Chloe Jayne as her younger self adds to the complexity, giving Emily a buried meaner streak that sends the two performances into a feedback loop of personality.
Back to Birdy is as raw a performance as its subject matter. There was occasional odd pacing in the middle, and in my opinion the handling of suicide themes could have been given more weight within the narrative. Sound and lighting (insert names) were a delight and helped forward the narrative, although sound occasionally veered too loud.
Despite these minor flaws, the performance affected me deeply. It got me thinking back over the friendships I’ve lost and gained, damaged and repaired — and the role memory has to play in all of it. Writer Z Bui has given me a lot to mull over with this incredibly potent story — I can’t wait for their next work, and I hope you all go and see this one while you can.
Back to Birdy is playing in the basement at The Imperial Hotel, Erskineville, from February 21 to March 1, 2024.
