Bird of North America, Urbanite Theater Sarasota, FL

Birds of North America is a two-person play about a father and daughter over a series of autumn bird watching sessions. The father is a staunch environmentalist and prides himself on a scientific mindset and the daughter finds her initial career doing copyediting for a conservative website he rather disapproves of.

The characters, played by Stephen Spencer and Denki Rongé, are both well realized and the bird watching does give a chance to track the world shifting around them. I think Denki, playing the daughter Caitlyn, in particular had a chance to show a lot of emotional range as she tried to maintain an often painful relationship and Stephen showed how John brought the same outlook when he was, by my politics, right and when he was sabotaging his own work or committing one of the most painful acts of mansplaining I’ve seen on stage. The Urbanite theater staging was evocative and had good sound design for the bird watching itself. I’ll definitely keep the Urbanite in mind in future trips. Spoilers after the cut.