Sunday, February 10, 2013

New Play about Penguins Takes Flight


Mike Sears as Silo the gay penguin and Steve Gunderson as Pale Male the red-tailed hawk in Diversionary's production of "Birds of a Feather." CREDIT: Ken Jacques
Mike Sears as Silo the gay penguin and Steve Gunderson as Pale Male the red-tailed hawk in Diversionary's production of "Birds of a Feather." CREDIT: Ken Jacques


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Rachael VanWormer as Zookeeper and Kevin Koppman-Gue as Birdwatcher in Diversionary Theatre's production of "Birds of a Feather." CREDIT: Ken Jacques

Whether you’re gay, straight ... or a penguin, finding your soul mate isn’t easy.
That’s the simple but sweet message in Marc Acito’s funny, witty comedy “Birds of a Feather,” which opened Friday at Diversionary Theatre. Inspired by the real-life relationships of gay penguins and straight red-tailed hawks in New York’s Central Park, it shows that no species, gender or sexuality has all the answers in the thorny quest for love.

Director James Vasquez brings a bright, effervescent spirit to the 90-minute script, which zings with continuous one-liners. The characters could easily be played too broad, but Vasquez and his fine cast find the heart and honesty in the feathered and featherless characters. 

Although the script is suitable for all ages, it’s not a fairy tale with feathered costumes. These birds talk (Jeannie Galioto’s ingeniously designed, quick-change costumes merely suggest avian characteristics) and the emotions they struggle with are no different from those of the troubled humans in the story — a lonely zookeeper, a nerdy bird-watcher and the warring tabloid targets Paula Zahn, the ex-CNN anchor, and her wealthy husband Richard Cohen.
Steve Gunderson and Mike Sears co-star as both avian pairs in the story. In 1998, male penguins Roy and Silo paired off and tried to hatch a rock, so zookeepers gave them an abandoned egg, which they incubated until it hatched, producing the female chick Tango. Although they later split (Silo found a female mate and Roy remains a confirmed bachelor), a children’s book about their relationship, “And Tango Makes Three,” has been banned by conservative school districts nationwide (Sean Fanning’s whimsical, hand-illustrated scenic design evokes the storybook).
As the show tune-loving Roy, Gunderson is girlish, teasing and playful (“I was hatched with yolk on my head, which accounts for my sunny disposition”), while Sears’ bisexual Silo is introspective, moody and conflicted (“I’m not gay, our relationship is gay” ... “I love you, not your gender”). He longs for freedom outside the great blue walls of their enclosure, and he’s stung by homophobic comments from fly-in zoo visitor Pale Male, whose high-flying sexual exploits with eight successive female mates have made him a superstar with birdwatchers since the early 1990s.
Gunderson and Sears flip roles as the hawk pair. Gunderson’s virile and aloof as the haughty, publicity-craving Pale Male, while Sears is a silky-voiced, scarf-waving Scarlett O’Hara as his mate Lola, who craves romance and attention. Their messy courtship from a nest built on a Fifth Avenue high-rise thrilled bird-lovers in 2002-2004 (Kevin Koppman-Gue is the sad-eyed Birdwatcher and Rachael VanWormer is the embittered Zookeeper) but it infuriated building residents, particularly VanWormer’s steely, cold Zahn and Koppman-Gue’s prickly Cohen.
The human characters in the play are lost and damaged, without a sense of purpose, and each is affected in some way by the birds. The Zookeeper nurtures the penguins but not herself; the Birdwatcher is emotionally adrift until he begins following the exploits of Pale Male and Lola from the boat landing in Central Park. And the cruelties exchanged between Zahn and Cohen extend to the hawks, who they try (but fail) to evict from a rooftop ledge of their apartment building. The birds' personalities are less complex. Their needs more basic: freedom, sex and partnership. Vasquez doesn't push the actors too hard to act like birds. The penguins amusingly hop up the stairs of their enclosure and their arms are held by their sides, but otherwise they're humanlike -- which emphasizes the similarities between the species.
Although Acito’s script falters a bit when he throws too much into the pot (9/11 memories, too many New York-centric jokes), the production never runs out of steam under Vasquez’s feathery touch.

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