Dragon Review: Birdsong – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

Published on: 31 Oct, 2024
Updated on: 31 Oct, 2024

In a tunnel under the Western Front, Firebrace (Max Bowden) thinks of home.

By Alice Fowler

It’s some twenty years since Sebastian Faulks’ seminal World War One novel, Birdsong, was first adapted for the stage. I’ve watched Birdsong productions in the past, but none with the raw power of Rachel Wagstaff’s new adaptation, directed by Alastair Whatley, currently on show at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre.

Amid the horror of war, Isabelle (Charlie Russell) and Wraysford (James Esler) meet again.

This Original Theatre production brings Faulks’ epic tale of suffering and survival to vivid, sometimes shocking, life. There are loud bangs aplenty (this show may not suit those of a nervous disposition) and a ravishing, explicit sex scene between our youthful hero, Stephen Wraysford (James Esler) and married Frenchwoman Isabelle (Charlie Russell), in which the passion underpinning Faulks’ story comes fully to the fore.

Esler, making his professional stage debut, is outstanding as Wraysford. Scenes of war-weary British officers in dug-outs reaching for the bottle are common enough in theatre to teeter on the edge of cliché. Esler avoids such pitfalls entirely, in a performance that feels fresh and authentic.

Max Bowden, best known for playing Ben Mitchell in the BBC’s Eastenders, also shines as Jack Firebrace, one of the company of sappers charged with digging tunnels on the Western Front towards the German lines. Scenes between Firebrace and fellow Sapper Arthur Shaw (Tama Phethean, also excellent), in which Firebrace learns by letter of the fate of his young son, are tender and affecting.

Designer Richard Kent has created a simple yet highly effective set, in which planked panels (resembling pallets) serve as everything from the walls of a middle-class French home to the ladders up which, in a heart-stopping finale, Wraysford’s men must clamber to join the disastrous Battle of the Somme.

Firebrace and Wraysford, as the tunnel they are in explodes.

As the play progresses, and the soldiers’ humanity is stripped away, the set too becomes more minimal. A trench, for example, is represented simply by a wooden block: the fire-step from which a man must look out into no man’s land.

At over three hours, including two intervals, this production requires a degree of stamina. At times, the pace drops slightly. However, the finale, in which those who have survived look to a future in which they cannot address the horrors they have witnessed, is profoundly moving.

We are watching this production, of course, at a time when terrible wars are raging. Birdsong reminds us of their dreadful toll – and that, even in the bleakest circumstances, new life may bring hope.

Birdsong continues at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre until Saturday November 2. For tickets, see www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk