Debuting on Oct. 24th and continuing through the 26th, the long-awaited freshman and sophomore play “The Birds” hit the Little Theatre last Thursday with buzz and excitement. The play, which was originally written by Aristophanes in 414 B.C, had to be adapted and altered by one of the directors, Andrew Biliter, for ETHS’ production.
The comedy follows two friends escaping a politically distraught Athens and finding the Land of the Birds, where they learn that not only can birds talk, they have their own council and monarchy. They try to convince the birds to return to their former glory and rise above any of the gods. The birds, after thorough discourse, eventually decide they love the idea and “transform” the humans into birds before building a majestic city in the sky where all the birds live and prosper with abundant food, housing and education. Of course nothing gold can stay, especially when messing with the gods, and it eventually all falls down.
ETHS’ rendition of “The Birds” was interactive, with actors immediately establishing that they can see the audience. Not only were gummy worms passed out for the human to bird transformation, but when the birds were creating their city, members of the audience were given the chance to design a flag, name the city and create the national anthem. Due to the fact that they didn’t know what the audience would say, some characters had to think on their feet. Since the play’s whole vibe was a little silly, their improvisation fit in well and you almost couldn’t tell they were ad-libbing at all. The whole experience was generally fun, and the intimacy of the little theater made the show very inviting.
The cast consisted of the 18 members that made it through auditions. After the casting choices were made, the group began daily rehearsals and began dress rehearsals on October 19th.
The directors, Andrew Biliter and Michael Miro, who thought of the idea, were in Humanities together back in their freshman year, where they learned about Greek mythology, and more specifically the art and culture behind it. “Over the years we would come to watch and direct quite a bit of Greek theater, but it was always tragedies or epics like ‘The Odyssey,’” said Biliter.
In 2021, however, they took a stab at greek comedies and after some tweaking they produced “The Frogs,” which was also written by Aristophanes. After loving how it went, they decided to produce another one of Aristophanes’ plays and landed on “The Birds” for the freshman/sophomore play. “We liked it because it’s kind of political…That seemed perfect for a show that opens days before the election,” remarked Biliter. “…There’s something comforting in a play that reminds us that humans have been both cynically critiquing and earnestly trying to improve society since it all began.”
Ancient Grecian comedies seem to still work 2 millennia later, and Thursday’s performance served to illustrate the potential of the revitalized genre.
