Review: Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds

Perfect in its simplicity, grace and execution. Paul Kelly lends his iconic Australian voice to 13 diverse poems about birds, and by doing so, he not only brings them back them to life, he reimagines them for a new, contemporary audience.  Watching the performance, you could easily believe they were part of Kelly’s immense back catalogue of songs by the ease and joy in which he approaches each poem.

Sharing the stage with Kelly are the multi award winning James Ledger, Alice Keath and the Seraphim Trio who vividly paint the humour, persistence and mystery of each bird and the fear, wonderment and ecstasy of the author.  By breathing life back into these poems, the performance not only succeeds in celebrating the joy of nature and its importance to people, it also manages to remind us of the beauty, lyricism and power of prose and the connection it can create with the natural living world.