The Birdmann’s Episodes of Significant Timing is deliciously noir. Everything in the show is black and white with 1930’s style backing music to add to the effect. The Birdmann’s delivery seems like at any moment he could slip and start talking about some crazy dame that wants him on the case.
Trying to decipher the events that would lead him to be handcuffed to an ironing board, The Birdmann recreates the memories of the night before. Mixing absurdity, physical comedy and one liners The Birdmann takes us through his story. While for the most part, this flows along at a steady pace, there are a couple of points where the audience is left too long listening to one liners delivered in a serious, weighty, deadpan style without any progression, dragging at the momentum of the show. There were also a lot of points where a one-liner would be repeated during the show which didn’t seem accidental, but never struck me as meaningful.
The physical comedy in the show consists mainly of absurdist reconstructions of magic tricks – giving fairly mundane actions the structure of illusion. Despite the 10pm timeslot, the acting through these parts of the show is styled as it would be for performing for children, but rather than being condescending, it gives the audience a child-like sense of wonder. The problem with this however, is that it does not mesh well with the dark mood that the rest of the show is trying so hard to construct, and lessens the impact of both the wonder and the darkness.
The use of simple props was inspired, with simple materials coming together to help create the world. With just an ironing board, a chair, a suitcase, a notebook, an iron, a shoe and some clothes, little pieces of artwork allowed the reuse of each prop for multiple purposes. A particularly nice touch was the titles for each section of the show being shown on the back of his notebook as he pondered the next part of the mystery.
The Birdmann’s unique style sets him apart from pretty much any other show in the festival. While other shows may blend into each other, feeding off the quirks and styles of their peers, there’s a sense that Trent Baumann creates the Birdmann in isolation, channelling the vaudeville of old to create a genre that is all his own. While this show may not be his finest work, it’s always a pleasure to experience a Birdmann show.
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