The Dodo Bird
In Fried’s play, set in a midwestern industrial town, the Dodo Bird is fortunate to work as a millwright’s helper, due to the kindness of millwright Russ Nowark, who keeps him on despite frequent hospital visits for the d.t.’s; the job is just enough to get by on. The story of how this particular human being reached this point of desperation and isolation is revealed during one evening in a bar across from the foundry, where the Dodo Bird is sober, washed, and waiting for a visit from his estranged daughter.
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But it’s Stephan Turner’s portrayal of the Dodo Bird that really makes the production work. A lesser actor could have turned this down-and-out guy into a bad midwestern Forrest Gump. Not Turner, whose unsentimental acting brings the Dodo Bird’s longings and loss to the surface in a vital and believable way. Especially in the last monologue, when he shares for the first time who he was years before, Turner’s Dodo Bird finds the last bit of strength that keeps him living. Turner’s monologue represents a rare moment of honesty in the theater, and it ends the play with a believeable bit of hope.
