It seems that Douglas Maxwell has cornered the market in plays about misunderstood boys in small towns. But who cares when he can gift his actors the sort of excruciatingly true moments that he does in this adaptation of John Levert’s The Flight of the Cassowary.
Set out as a long monologue performed by Paul J Corrigan in superb form as Paul, Sandy Grierson and Claire Lamont provide the dozen or so characters who inhabit this fifth-formers life at the beginning of a new term. The conceit of the book is that Paul believes that he can actually turn into different animals. He does so when under stress and as you begin to understand his belief, the cast manage to keep the thought alive that it might, actually, be real.
The success of the play, however, is in its articulation of a life. If Corrigan sets up a slightly other-worldly tone for the production, helped by simple but atmospheric set and lighting by Kai Fisher, Grierson and Lamont are vital in giving it real splashes of colour. These are two hugely physical performances as they take on the characters as perceived by Paul, with Grierson as next door’s bullying dog, Paul’s Dad or his best friend, and Lamont as the biology teacher, Paul’s mum or his girlfriend.
Each character and each appearance takes you deeper into Paul’s world. So deep, thanks to the intense atmosphere created by director Matthew Lenton, that the final questioning of his reality comes as a real shock.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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