Father and daughter struggle to connect in Urbanite’s ‘Birds of North America’
In Anna Ouyang Moench’s “Birds of North America” at Urbanite Theatre, a father and his adult daughter attempt to bond each fall while birding in the family’s Baltimore backyard over the course of a decade. It is clear that they love one another and want to be closer, but there’s a disconnect that keeps them at odds.
Moench takes familiar themes of dysfunctionality and wraps them around broader societal issues and concerns, like climate change and political views, that heighten the split between Caitlyn and her father, John.
When the play begins, John (played by Stephen Spencer), is a medical researcher who has spent many years working on clinical trials to find a cure for dengue fever. He is out to help the world, even if he doesn’t know how to help his own family. He is worried about climate change and hates unnecessary travel because of its negative impact on the environment, though he can’t quite grasp why that might upset his never-seen wife, who wants to spend time with him away from home somewhere.
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And John worries that Caitlyn (played by Dekyi Rongé) lacks direction and purpose in her life as she approaches 30 and bounces from one relationship to another with guys dad doesn’t care for. He also doesn’t like that she works as a copy editor for the National Rifle Association (and later other businesses he finds offensive), and is dismissive of her attempts to write a novel and her struggles to have a baby.
John’s not a bad guy, but as becomes clearer over the course of the play he doesn’t know how to communicate and doesn’t have the kind of filters Caitlyn needs from him. He tries to be helpful but sounds judgmental, and sometimes a hug would be better than words.
A sense of sadness permeates the placid production staged by Summer Wallace, even amid the occasional excitement of them spotting a rarely seen bird. They can express tenderness and surprise the audience with moments of vulnerability. But just as they struggle to find a way to be together, I found it hard to connect or respond to either of them.
Part of that is the production’s flat emotional range. Wallace and her actors establish a gentle easy pace from the start, but it rarely varies. There’s little sense of emotional weight, even as the issues pile up and the concerns grow stronger. There is no yelling (or not much). A quiet moment can convey a lot, but I kept wondering what I was supposed to be taking away from each scene. Little seems to change and without understanding much about the rest of the family or their own histories, I had trouble caring about them. Even though there’s no need for a happy ending or a revelatory exchange, you might some growth or shift. Time moves on, but these two don’t.
Rongé and Spencer work well together. You believe they are who we see, and follow their bird sightings with clarity. The walls on Frank Chavez’s leaf-strewn set are decorated with diagrams of birds and their feathers that bring you into their world, as leaves fall from the sky at key moments. And Rew Tippin’s sound design brings you outside with different bird calls teasing the audience and the characters.
“Birds of North America”
By Anna Ouyang Moench, directed by Summer Wallace,. Reviewed Jan. 11 at Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St., Sarasota. Through Feb. 12. Ticket are $39, $25 for 40 and younger and $5 for students. 941-321-1397; urbanitetheatre.com
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Urbanite Theatre play struggles to connect audience and characters
