A tense and harrowing story, Firebird follows a young woman who ends up in horrific and dangerous circumstances. Held against her will and used effectively as a sex slave, Tia (Mollie Milne) struggles to reconcile what’s happened to her, as we see her both during the trauma and afterward. The other characters are played by two actors, Taqi Nazeer who is both the police officer and the captor, and Kelise Gordon-Harrison who is both Tia’s friend and her social worker.
This isn’t easy viewing, and largely the cast do an admirable job dealing with the heightened material. At times I would have liked to see a more stylistic approach to the acting itself, as for me the most exquisite part of the interpretation was the design. Tia is situated on a white raised platform, and the other actors are sometimes level with her, sometimes below or invisible; and the white ceiling rises, lowers, and even opens a small window like space to create shadow and light boxes. The direction plays with orientation, questioning which way is “up” in a really clever way that helps the audience experience the disorientation which Tia is most certainly experiencing. With this, however, a highly naturalistic acting style doesn’t always merge - moving to something more expressionistic would have (in my view) helped elevate this even further to something truly exquisite.
A very capable production and some strong performances overall.
