BIRDMAN

Set to run at Catalina Theatre over the holiday period is Birdman. Written and directed by Marc Kay, this one-man show stars Adam Doré.

Birdman is the fictionalised account of a con artist-turned-pioneering aviator in the late 1800’s (Augustus St. John Merriweather) who wishes to build a machine capable of manned human flight ... at least that’s what he’s telling everyone. We follow him in lecture halls, post offices and his laboratory as he works towards conning sponsors into investing in a steam-powered glider that will reshape human history, or his own.

Throughout the play, as he relates his trials and troubles in getting the rich to part with their money, and the glider to work, he builds the contraption on stage, and relates his own history to his sister Rebecca offstage, speaking of his dreams to get away with the gift of the century. But when Rebecca abandons him, his dreams change and it becomes a question of proving to her, and to himself, that he is the man of science he has always claimed to be.

Birdman runs at the Catalina Theatre from June 23 to July 8. Tickets R60 (R40 students, pensioners and block bookings) available from www.strictlytickets.com, or call the Catalina Theatre on 031 305 6889. The play is 55 minutes long, and has a Parental Guidance Warning.