I was excited when I heard that the Sebastian Faulks bestseller Birdsong was to be turned into a play and jumped at the chance to go when a friend asked me if I wanted to see it at the Comedy Theatre in London.
In the story, young Englishman Stephen Wraysford travels to France on business and falls in love with his host’s young wife Isabelle Azaire. She is being ill-treated by her husband and Stephen, sensing her pain, falls in love with her. To leave her with no doubt, he tells her of his passion for her and they embark on a secret torrid affair.
As a man in love, Stephen takes desperate and frequent chances to communicate and be with Isabelle, planning times when they can be alone together. But events overtake them and all does not bode well.
The First World War starts and Stephen is thrown into the grim experiences of battle. In the book, this is conveyed so realistically. He still maintains his love for Isabelle though she isn’t with him, thinking about her at every chance.
Ben Barnes, star of the movie adaptation, Dorian Gray, takes the lead but he is somehow a little too textbook in his stage presence. You don’t quite believe him as this impassioned being. The same could be said for Genevieve O’Reilly as Isabelle. It’s the cast of soldiers who make the production more effervescent and engaging. They show a greater complexity of personalities and draw out more of the pain of conflict. The stage sets were well thought out, never overpowering or taking away from the actors and sound was used creditably to create the war zone. The most moving aspect was the list of names of soldiers who were killed in battle.
Cherrydial 
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