Review of ‘Today I Killed My Very First Bird’, Theatre Royal Plymouth

If your mother was a heroin addict, you hated the ground that your stepfather walked on, and everyone around you was a liar and a thief; how do you think that you’d have turned out?…

Normal, stable, and singing in the choir?

Or angry, broken, and about to blow a gasket…

“Today I killed my very first bird” has all the answers; and at the risk of running a spoiler alert here, I didn’t hear a single hymn.

What I did hear, was a hard-hitting story of a man who spins plates and swaps heads a hundred times a day; one minute a hard-faced, southeast London gangster, full of booze, birds and bravado, the next, a small child, raped and molested, broken and paralysed with fear who slowly morphs into a hard man who likes to carry guns.

A guy who cheats and robs, who threatens and enforces, a guy who drinks whisky, and takes the piss out of his mates… a guy who goes home to see the mother he adores, who loves nothing more than to rip him to shreds…unless of course she’s clucking and needs his help to find a vein.

A guy who has an epiphany.

And gets to see it all.

The hurt, the loss, the wasted years, his hopes and dreams… potential.

All of it.

Everything.

But is it all just a little too little, and 30 odd years too late?…

Written by Jason Brownlee, directed by Lee Hart and produced by Ben Lyon-Ross / Voodoo Monkeys and The Theatre Royal Plymouth, “Today I killed my very first bird” manages to be both beautiful and brutal in equal measure, and the fact that the play is delivered in poetic verse yet still manages to go straight for the jugular is incredible.

All of the actors, without exception were flawless, and perfectly cast, although the absolute stars of the show for me were Brownlees himself, and his low self-esteem but high maintenance girlfriend Bernie (played by Amber L Jacobs…..) who was absolutely mesmerising.

To stand on a stage and deliver a play of any calibre takes guts and bravado. To stand on a stage and deliver a play that lays your soul completely bare, with absolutely nowhere to hide when those skeletons of yours come piling out of the closet …incredible.

????? shiny  stars

‘Today I Killed My Very First Bird’ runs to 29th Aug, 2022 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Pleasance Courtyard. Book here. 

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