THEATRE REVIEW: The Bird Show ★★★★

The Bird Show 
Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
Saturday 29th June 2019

Following the story of Sally the Sparrow and her flapping friend Henry the Herron, The Bird show tales the story of two friends who long fly from their grounded surroundings in search for food, but along the way fin themselves trapped with despair, littered goods and occasional flocks of seagulls.

Presented by The Last Baguette company and aimed at children, we took our little reviewer along and by the end of the hour long performance, we find it hard to keep up with all their thoughts as they enjoyed all the aspects on the performance, and rightly so with a slick and simple story, mixed with brilliantly engineered puppetry to tell the origins of Henry's first flying adventure, where he met his close friend Henriette, who he longs to be reunited with one day.

The use of musicality was another successful aspect with a blend of toe tapping tunes marinated with audience participation, which in fairness took a little time to develop, probably due to the small numbers in the space. The tunes, enjoyed by all ages, were produced in a genuinely humerus manner, with their repetitive verse and chorus.

Lighting and Set wise, both were simple and effective, making it clear that the focus would be put upon the two actors, who both were clear in mannerisms and characteristics, and displayed sheer attention and body language towards the audience. The costume and makeup, though at first seeming quite intimidating with bold facial design, did it's focus on their two friends justice and their willingness to allow us as the audience to come down following the performance to play with the puppetry a nice gesture and one which we took advantage of, learning how the puppets were operated and designed.

Overall, The Bird Show caters to its target audience with huge success, and further with older generations alike, bringing together a funny, charming, and at times thought-provoking moments which make us question our environmental footprint in this world.