Birds Episode Description

Tristen Sledge
THEA4220
T/TR 12:45 PM
Marla Carlson

It is 414 BC in Athens, Greece, and I am shifting in my seat to get a better view of the
stage, as it is difficult for me to see over the heads of the men in the audience. Since I am one of
few women, they certainly aren’t moving on my behalf. The play we’re all enamored by is Birds,
Aristophanes newest comedy. From what my husband has told me, his comedies are usually hi-
larious, but this is the second show I’ve ever been to, and most of this is new to me.
Currently, there are two older gentlemen—not the most handsome of any bunch, to be
sure—speaking to the strangest costumed man I’ve ever seen. He is supposed to be half-bird,
half-man, and the holes in his “plumage” communicates such. I watch them speak to each other,
and my eyes wander to take in the rest of the stage as they go back and forth in discussion. It is
built up with multiple levels, and looks like a multi-tiered mountain with doors and halls carved
into what appears to be rock, but likely isn’t. Hoopoe calls out for all the birds to join him, and I
see different types of birds coming out of every carved door. There are twenty-four of them, and
they are all different in color and plumage. There is someone dressed as a flamingo, and owl, an-
other hoopoe, and even a peacock. These are not even native birds, and it is clear that this is
meant to be a foreign land.
I lean forward, watching the bird chorus flap about onstage, appearing to be swooping
and diving on the two men in the center. It appears like a flock of every feathered beast you
could imagine, and they squawk and cry out, continuously spinning and flapping their feathered
arms around these men. The leader of the chorus calls for them to attack once they finally realize
that there are outsiders among them. I let out a laugh at the tweet-like stuttering of the Leader of
the Chorus, and am certainly not the only one who finds it funny.
Even though it is a comedy and I should be paying attention to the dialogue, I can’t stop
watching the costumes. They are all so colorful! The actors are funny just within the way they
carry themselves, and it comes off perfectly animalistic in contrast to Peisetairos and Euelpides.

Works Cited

1
Aristophanes, Birds. Aristophanes: Birds, Lysistrata, Assembly-Women, Wealth. Translated by
Stephen Halliwell, Oxford UP, 1997, pp. 1-78.