A production truly for the birds

Opening its inaugural season as part of the Fountain School of Performing Arts, you could say the first Dal Theatre production of the year is a hoot.

Directed by Jure Gantar, interim director of the Fountain School, The Birds delights with its wit, humour and creativity. Originally an ancient Greek play by Aristophanes, the Dalhousie production is based on an English verse version by Sean O’Brien.

Dr. Gantar says the cast has been focusing a good deal of its attention on making use of the set's props and costumes. “A couple of [pairs of] scissors and a little imagination,” is how he describes them.

As you may have guessed from Dr. Gantar’s statement, the play’s use of props is intriguing. Designed by Dal Costume Studies Instructor John Pennoyer and Head of Props Melinda Robb, and constructed by students, the props are primarily made up of recycled materials and often act as costumes or puppets (or both!).

Mary Hartley, the student in charge of props for The Birds, offered a tour of the various completed designs: masks made of water bottles, an eagle helmet made of plastic spoons and puppets of all sizes — from the albatross that towers over its puppeteer to the nightingale, tiny enough to wear on a few fingers.

Sarah Deller, Morgan Melnyk and Henricus Gielis.

While the idea of props made of recycled plastic may seem a little strange at first, their beauty might surprise you — especially when they shimmer like cellophane under the stage lights.

“It was pretty fun,” says Mary of the prop-building process. “We went around the building looking through recycling cans and looking like nutcases. We had a great time doing it.”

Sandbox setting

While the props are compelling, they are far from being the only interesting thing about this production. The whole stage, for example, is a large sandbox, with a staggering 13 tonnes of sand used to bring it to life.

“It’s a beach,” says Dr. Gantar, “and you don’t know if it’s a contemporary beach or not. It looks like a beach rave at a Greek beach — you’ll see, too, that the music fits with that — so it’s kind of a merger of the two worlds, something that we can relate to but something that’s relatively accurate to the period.”

Sarah Deller and Henricus Gielis, with chorus members Katie Webster, Katerina Bakolias, Kenzie Delo, Ben Leger and Sansom Marchand.

The sand also makes for safer falls during the play’s frequent action scenes, and the dust particles increase the definition of the lights.

“The first image that you see when the play starts is [two characters] drinking out of a bottle of water in the desert,” Dr. Gantar explains before the dress rehearsal. Reminiscent of a beach covered in litter, almost everything in this play is in fact recycled and/or sustainable in some way, even the sand. (Dr. Gantar says the Fountain School plans to sell the sand for re-use after the production is finished.)

"Take Flight to Freedom"

The Birds is the first play of Dal Theatre’s five-play season and fits perfectly into the season’s theme, “Take Flight to Freedom.”

“I think we always try to determine the theme based on what we’ve chosen rather than the other way around … In [The Birds] it’s birds escaping from economic hardship, and in the other plays it’s different kinds of flights.” Next up is Our Country’s Good, a story about flight from England to Australia, directed by theatre faculty member Rob McClure.

The final play of the season, which, as Dr. Gantar says, is always the “most expensive, and most lavish in production,” sounds like something not to be missed: high-profile director Tanja Jacobs will be directing Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.

Marina Gwynne and Henricus Gielis, with chorus members Katie Webster, Sinclair Gwilliams and Ben Leger.

The Birds runs from October 14 to 18 with evening performances each day at 8 p.m. and an additional matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 18. Tickets are available at the Dalhousie Arts Centre box office.