Bird (Tour – Bolton)

In a year of relentless bad news reports of the systematic sexual exploitation of young girls were particularly disturbing. The reports were made worse by the suggestion that one reason the practice went unchallenged was that the girls were perceived as willing participants rather than exploited victims.

Laura Lomas’s provocative monologue Bird refutes this judgement. She uses a character who, following the death of her mother, transfers her desperate need for affection initially to her younger sister and later to a spectacularly unsuitable boyfriend. Lomas argues that it is possible to be so young as to be incapable of reaching considered judgements and so to be open to exploitation.

Fourteen-year-old Leah Bird (sole performer Amaka Okafor) has decided to run away to London with her boyfriend Sammy. Waiting in the squalid flat they use for their trysts she recounts Sammy’s astonishing thoughtfulness and her hurt that her best friend and stepfather do not share her opinions. But Leah does not enjoy the parties Sammy makes her attend and the pills he gives her to induce sleep are beginning to have side effects.

Lomas’s point of view is communicated via an excellent performance by Amaka Okafor. She delivers Lomas’s street-smart dialogue with the defensive and surly attitude of a typical teen. Yet Okafor’s wide-eyed innocence and breathless enthusiasm suggest, if not a younger, certainly a more naïve and trusting girl. It is heartbreaking to see Okafor trying to ignore the increasing evidence –concealing blood stained underwear – of the way Leah has been abused.

Director Jane Fallowfield sets the mood of an encroaching nightmare. Joanna Scotcher’s exaggerated bedroom set – mattresses messily stacked and net curtains that seem to go on forever – have an Urban Gothic feel and reflect the chaotic and confused mind of Leah. Distorted sound effects and lighting add to the claustrophobic sense of events closing in and forcing Leah to confront knowledge she would rather ignore.

Bird is a refreshing attempt to understand rather than condemn a victim and a powerful and moving play.

Bird is at the Octagon Theatre until 18 October.