It was in fact, the fourth novel he’d written but the first he thought worth publishing. Narration is far more successful when characters voice it, especially in the bedroom scene between Stephen and Isabelle, in which they describe the physical act of passion in turn, and also in the final scenes between Stephen and a Jewish German soldier which brim with pain and poignancy.īirdsong is available online from Original Theatre Company until 4 July and from 16-18 July.Sebastian Faulks received the news that his novel, A Trick of the Light, had been accepted for publication in a phone-box on Holborn Viaduct. It is unclear whether this is part of the drama or an official pause from it, and while the documentary footage and narration are powerful, they combine oddly to push us out of the story. It provides a potent moment of dramatic pause, but what follows is an extended narration by Faulks, set against the image of a soldier walking into the field, along with images of commemorative lists of the dead and gravestones. His omniscient voice sounds over-literary at times (“Sleep came to him suddenly like an unseen assailant”) and lacks the emotional expressiveness of the actors.Īt the end of the first half, there is original footage of soldiers waiting to go over their trenches, into the brave and bloody battle of the Somme. The most jarring element, however, comes in the intermittent narration by Sebastian Faulks, which can seem like snatches of an audiobook latched on to a play. There are musical moments, too, from soldiers playing the flute to violins and song, and this brings theatricality but also slows down the pace of the drama which, at two-and-a-half hours, feels long.
The male camaraderie of war is much more poignant and the strongest scenes come with the storyline of sapper Jack Firebrace, who is played by Tim Treloar with just the right mix of voluble comedy and silent despair. The central illicit relationship between Stephen and Isabelle is played well enough within the confines of the split screens, though it feels sudden and premature when Stephen confesses, at their first meeting alone: “I would do anything for you.”
Tom Kay as Wraysford and Madeleine Knight as Isabelle in a split-screen online staging Birdsong.
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