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CHS Stages | The Birds at Strawberry Theater Workshop

Trying to make sense of life in a strange new world of avian murder

As 12th Ave Arts enters its second year of full programming, its three resident companies have begun carving their own niches as their identities change with the benefits that come from permanent homes. It’s from this stable base that The Birds one of the most chaotic 12th Ave productions yet — takes off.

Strawberry Theater Workshop, with founder and artistic director Greg Carter at the helm, has always been the most political, or at least issue forward, of the three companies, producing such plays as Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Laramie Project, and The Normal Heart. Their mission statement itself gets at this, saying,The Workshop is dedicated to the idea of ensemble, in the broadest sense of the word. Our ensemble does not only mean a resident company of workers, but a collective that includes our work, our audience, and our neighborhood. This is an activist stance.”

The company christened the brand-new main stage at 12th Ave with a completely refreshing production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, which imagined the stage to still be under construction. The characters ate breakfast on tables made of plywood. Every night the role of the professor was played by a local non-actor, including City Council member Sally Clark. This exceptionally reviewed production signaled a new era of theater making on Capitol Hill, particularly with the closing of several stages, including Theater Schmeater’s space and the Little Theater on 19th Ave.

In their third production, once again on the main stage, Strawshop is using familiar material, Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 novelette adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1963, but in converting it to the stage the company is presenting it through the lens of post-9/11 paranoia and the looming threat of climate change in the 21st century.

Directed by the founder of the company, and featuring a small cast that includes Stranger arts editor Sean Nelson, last seen on the Seattle stage in the now-defunct Balagan Theater’s production of Jerry Springer: the Musical, the plot focuses on a world (spoiler alert) where all birds turn against humanity according to the cycle of the tides. The cast also includes Shawn Belyea, usually behind the scenes as executive director of the 14/48 Projects, and Meme Garcia-Cosgrove. But the star of the show is Sarah Harlett, who is now becoming a Strawshop regular after last fall’s production of Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum, where she memorably conducted seminars on a made-up language, plays the main character trying to make sense of life in a strange new world of avian murder.

The Birds runs Thursday through Saturday and on Mondays through February 20 at 12th Ave Arts. More information is available on the Strawshop website.

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