A MOUTHFUL OF BIRDS
Nomenil
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Of course, Dionysus, the wine-soaked lord, is still making mischief today: just look at any crowd at a sports event. And women are capable of violence as savage as that perpetrated by men. Nor are charismatic spiritual practices unknown today, when daily newspapers regularly carry horoscopes and fortune-tellers advertise openly. But Caryl Churchill and David Lan, who cowrote A Mouthful of Birds, have to buy into the myths of female pacifism and a society dominated by reason in order to rebut them.
The highly personal way in which each character delivers his or her testimonial indicates the play may have been generated by improvisation by the original performers. Whatever, the script faithfully reproduces British rhythms and colloquialisms, as when a prison guard asserts, “That’s what I say–capital punishment. Finish her off–quick smart!” When repeated by American actors in decidedly American accents, these sayings often come across as stilted and arcane. The actors’ tendency to recite their speeches into space rather than connecting with each other and the audience through eye contact or facial expression further compounds the play’s enigmatic fuzziness.
