Reviews

Days later I can still hear the birds, squawking at each other as they debate humanity’s ineptitude: “Stupid…human….stupid….human….AARRRG.”

You’re more than an observer in the audience of The Bluebird Mechanicals, you’re committed to taking a ride that is at times awkward, uncomfortable, vulgar, intense, humorous and mesmerising.

You do not leave the theatre unmoved, just as you can’t leave a relationship unchanged, but what you do feel can take a while to process.

Meryl Streep is a hard act to follow but Diana McLean makes you forget her in an instant the moment she walks on stage in this touring production of Glorious!, Peter Quilter’s play about the legendary off-key singing soprano Florence Foster Jenkins. Bringing zeal, passion and considerable warmth to the character, she establishes instant rapport with the audience (as Foster Jenkins obviously did back in the forties) massacring some of the most difficult arias in the opera canon. Who knew McLean could sing and sing so well badly?

Director Michele McNamara’s intention for Sarah Kane’s 1999 play (first performed in 2000) is to depict ‘a world where we can see what we feel’.  In this, she largely succeeds.  It’s a play ‘about’ the experience of clinical depression and the aim, for this director, is to take us into the world of mental illness.

Exceptional Us is a compilation of two one act plays, presented by Stirling Players Youth Theatre Group. The 11 -15 year olds performed with great energy, enthusiasm and teamwork, to a very receptive audience.

The Exceptional Childcare Centre, by Dale Schrifin, tells of a young boy accepted into a highly competitive preschool. He is given a one day trial in order to secure his place, but things go rather awry.