Birthday Fish is an absurdist physical exploration of the feeling of being a ‘fish out of water’. Bearing a cartoonish quality, Erin Hughes and Stephanie Burrell have created an intriguing show that has great potential.
An intriguing production with buckets of potential
Erin and Steph are upstairs, sitting amongst the remnants of a birthday party. Fixating on their anxiety-ridden experiences, the two suffer existential crises as they sink deeper and deeper into their feelings of inadequacy and shame. Numbing the pain with alcohol and layers of lipgloss, the pair become more and more uninhibited as the evening rolls on.
Hughes and Burrell use a variety of theatrical devices to communicate their story: VoiceOver, physical theatre, absurd props and imagery, which at times feel disconnected from one another. Moments of dialogue don’t quite manage to expand upon the world that the two characters are inhabiting and it would be more striking for us to enter into the play in medias res, hitting us with the dramatic absurdism from the start. If naturalistic text is integral to the piece, then it needs to be in stark contrast with the more artistic performance styles and provide background to the characters’ relationship and behaviour.
Hughes and Burrell’s choice of imagery is brilliant, as the visual picture of a fish cleverly reflects the strange internal reality of the characters as well as being an excellent fit for the absurd style. Set to the backdrop of Tommy Wallwork’s impeccable sound design, the stage pulsates with energy. Unfortunately, other choices were less successful, such as the sequence where the pair clean up at the party as robots, which felt detached from the rest of the show. Similarly, though their commentary on the struggles and conflicting demands of current society is interesting, this short section of the play bites off more than it can chew, and it would be more effective for them to delve deeper into the psyche of the protagonists themselves instead.
Dramatic, exuberant and considered, Birthday Fish is an intriguing production with buckets of potential. Hughes and Burrell have real creative promise, their performance just needs a few adjustments to take the next step.
