REVIEW: Firebird, Trafalgar Studios 2 ✭✭✭✭✭

Firebird at Trafalgar Studios 2

Firebird deals with pertinent weighty issues of race, class and child exploitation, but the writing shines with Phil Davies’ dark humour. It is punchy and savage, it’s stark grimy set underscored with intrusive dubstep during the scene changes. See this play for the three performances of the small cast, who possess an unbridled and searing energy that shakes you to the core.

Callie Cooke, Tahirah Sharif and Phaldut Sharma star in Firebird transfer

Firebird at Trafalgar Studios 2

Callie Cooke, Tahirah Sharif and Phaldut Sharma will reprise their roles in Phil Davies’ debut play Firebird, following a run at Hampstead Downstairs last autumn. Davies’ play marks Callie Cooke’s debut stage appearance having recently graduated from The Arts Education School. She stars alongside Tahirah Sharif (Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, National Theatre, Waterloo Road) and Phaldut Sharma (Ramayan, Lyric Hammersmith, EastEnders). Firebird opens at Trafalgar Studios this February, in association with The Children’s Society and directed by Edward Hall, Hampstead Theatre’s Artistic Director. Responding to nationwide cases of child sexual exploitation throughout Britain, including those in Davies’ hometown of Rochdale, Firebird shows how easy it can be for vulnerable young people to fall victim to sexual abuse. The play dramatises how the innocent are all too often failed by the authorities who are meant to protect them. Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children’s Society, says: “When we first … Read more