Exploring the lives of those often overlooked when the war is remembered, Birdsong takes us below ground during WW1, where the tunneller ‘rats’ are digging towards the Germans and vice versa. That’s not to say that the production is anything near heavily flawed – it has real drama and trauma which grips and provokes reflection on the war and its impact. There’s great merit in working this hard to bring as much of the original text as possible to the stage but in this case, the novel is so vast that when adapted for the stage, it borders on sprawling in places. It’s a marathon rather than a sprint and at 80 minutes for Act 1 and 50 minutes for Act 2, it’s a production which feels Shakespearean in length. This stage version of Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong is directed by Alastair Whatley with Charlotte Peters and is presented by Birdsong Productions Ltd. Tuesday 13th February 2018 at West Yorkshire Playhouse
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