the birds
"we’ve heard that there’s a city where free men might live like birds"
In the Spring of 2006 threeovereden joined forces with award winning poet and scholar Sean O’ Brien (‘the bard of urban Britain’ Daily Telegraph) to resurrect Aristophanes’ classic fantasia, The Birds.
Sean O’Brien’s verse version of The Birds was originally staged at the National Theatre in 2002, directed by Theatre Complicite’ s Kathryn Hunter.
Disillusioned by the bureaucracy of the modern world two lads, Pez and Eck, go in search of the perfect society, and literally reach for the skies.
Sean O'Brien's version brings Aristophanes' devastatingly ironic comment on human ambition bang up-to-date and is brimful of jokes ancient and modern.
Sean O'Brien is a poet, playwright, critic, editor and broadcaster. He is also Professor of Poetry at Hallam University, Sheffield. He has published five collections of poetry. His plays include a political verse tragedy, Laughter When We're Dead (2000), My Last Barmaid (2000), Downriver: A Jazz Musical (with Keith Morris, 2001), and, of course, an adaptation of Aristophanes’ The Birds.
‘In short this was a remarkable performance. It hit all its targets.’
Hexham Courant
'With writer Sean O'Brien in the audience for this show, the pressure was on.
But threeovereden's five actors and one musician were more than capable of coming up with an insightful and intelligent production of The Birds.
This was only the second staging of O'Brien's updated version of Aristophanes's 414BC play.
The first was the National Theatre's circus-like spectacular in 2002, criticised for smothering the new text with overly impressive aerial acrobatics.
For Threeovereden, the acrobatics were purely verbal.
The Birds is more of a long poem than a play, and both plot and content are fairly dense and complex. You do need a bit of background to attempt to understand all the Greek references.
But threeovereden's intention to give The Birds a fair hearing paid off.
Their freewheeling interpretation of the poem was a delight to watch. Threeovereden allow their audience to take flight with them, bringing a light and comic touch to the weighty themes of freedom, democracy and tyranny.
Five actors - Leslie Simpson, Sophie Scott, Jacqueline Phillips, Mark Cronfield and Daniel Carver - somehow manage to fill each of their 37 parts with vitality and originality.
Clearly on a shoestring, Threeovereden don't do visuals, special effects, tightropes or costumes (except hats).
The Birds was pared down to the basics with a modest set and minimal lighting, and on this occasion it was not even performed in a theatre but in the middle of a library.
What they concentrate on is the quality of acting and musicianship.
The production was beautifully and simply directed by Bill Martin. And they make the most of their best asset, an impeccable interaction between the script and the live music of Milo Thelwall.'
Tamzin Lewis in The Journal
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