The King of All Birds – Dublin Fringe Festival – Review
Find out more about Martha Knight here.

Venue – Project Arts Centre – Cube
Duration – 60mins

“The wren, the wren, the king of all birds”

At the start of the production, Martha Knight sits centre stage. She is dressed in a long, flowing black gown along with an unusual mask, resembling the skull of a bird complete with its beak. As she starts to speak, we are told that we are gathered here tonight for a reason, and that is to pick a new King of All Birds. We are told that there were two previous kings. The first was the Wren, the smallest of the birds but also the cleverest. We hear how she tricked the other birds to become the king. The second King of All Birds is an ancient king, Mad Sweeney, who was cursed by a catholic priest and was transformed into a bird. We hear the story of how these two kings came to power, the story of their lives and their eventual demise.

The backdrop for this production is a photo of a house, hanging on a wall. The photo is an aerial view of a house in rural Ireland. The reasons for this photo becomes clear as the production reaches its conclusion. The production has a fascination with what a bird sees as it flies high above our heads. It is a view that was impossible for most people to imagine until recent years when man learned how to fly.

According to her website, Martha is interested in the “overlaps between theatre, music, sound, and participation” and that is certainly the case in this work. The stage has a musical instrument in each corner, with an electric guitar, mandolin, flute and keyboard. At various times throughout the performance, she moves to these instruments to perform for her audience. She also uses a variety of microphone effects to alter her voice. She has an ethereal quality on stage, and performs with a wry grin on her face, possibly wondering if the audience is in on her joke. The songs performed include the Wren and her favourite song, Wild Mountain Thyme. If you don’t know the name, you’ll know the lyrics “Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll all go together”.

Possibly the most unusual thing about the Dublin Fringe Festival is that it throws up productions such as this. They would seem out of place at other times of the year, but as you wander from production to production, you see some genuinely curious things on stage. Some of the stories she tells you’ll have heard before, while others are purely her own inventions. We also get to hear about other unusual people who were fascinated with flying, including Richard Crosbie, who has a statue in Ranelagh Gardens, and is said to be “the first Irishman to fly”. The musical interludes are nicely haphazard and the delivery of her stories is all done with a knowing wink, as she reads from some ancient book. It is a witty, peculiar and quite unique production that will leave you confused and amused in equal measure.