Review: FIREBIRD, King’s Head Theatre
Photo credit: Geraint Lewis
FIREBIRD is the true account of two Soviet soldiers finding unlikely and highly prohibited love in their mandatory two years of service. It is based on the memoir of Sergey Fetisov, which was adapted into a 2021 screenplay by Peeter Rebane and Tom Prior. The film found success, premiering at BFI Flare, and now debuts its stage adaptation at the King’s Head Theatre.
Sergey (Theo Walker) is artistic and sensitive, our earnest protagonist, who falls hopefully and hopelessly in love with Roman (Robert Eades): a strapping, charismatic fighter pilot. Their story is entwined with their best friend on the Base Luisa (Sorcha Kennedy) and their “Comrade Colonel” Alexei (Nigel Hastings). All four performers have their emotional moments, and pass the baton back and forth as part of an ensemble that has easy chemistry, delivering Richard Hough’s regularly witty dialogue with both passivity and punch.
The play is dated yet charming; a forbidden love story that feels more anecdotal than climactic. Clancy Flynn’s innovative lighting design nurtures and nudges the characters from the cold winds of Estonia to a warm pseudo-nuclear home in bustling Moscow, full of quaint interior decoration and the occasional firework.
The set uses the King’s Head’s thrust space sparsely but well, with a coffin-like record player cabinet staring seats 1-14 in the face for most of the performance. It’s a solid 90-minutes all the way through, carrying you along with these characters as they try to grow and change against their nature. The backdrop of Cold War Russia is just that: the beating heart is the interpersonal drama, and the play seems to know this.
Owen Lewis directs with a deliberateness that feels confident and assured of the play’s inherent allure. The tension between the leads is drawn thin and taut in their scenes together, with the performers rarely standing close, rarely facing each other, to make the moment of connection as sizzling as possible. Gregor Donnelly’s set is simple and unobtrusive, with the highlight being a sliding door moved to cover one exit or another (or either), which feels subtle enough to be appropriate for a play with relatively low stakes.
A steamy, sentimental and frequently poignant piece of history, brought to stage in a delightful little package.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Oli Burgin
Firebird plays at London’s King’s Head Theatre until 9 February, with further info here.
