UCCELLINI (LITTLE BIRDS)
The Coronet Theatre
★★★★
“deeply evocative and unpredictable”
Like a sighting of an unfamiliar bird out of its usual habitat, Italian playwright Rosalinda Conti’s “Uccellini (Little Birds)” is spotted hovering on the London theatre scene. It is a fragile creature, nocturnal and fleeting, delicately structured and fearful; but one that can surprise us with moments of ferocity if disturbed. The play exists in a twilight zone, somewhere between the heart of nature and the intellect; between the living and the land of ghosts. Nesting in the shadows of fairytales. It takes some concentration perhaps – performed in Italian with surtitles, making it difficult to focus on the stage and the translated dialogue at the same time – but the rewards are magical.
The setting is a woodland cottage, deep in the forest. Once a family home, it now echoes with ghosts of the past. A voiceover asks us to imagine the scene, as if Marco Rossi and Francesca Sgariboldi’s set wasn’t enough. An authentic, country kitchen lies behind a gossamer gauze, in constant half-light as the story drifts through the small hours and into the dawn. Shadow projections on the gauze, conceived by Alessandro Ferroni in collaboration with Malombra, lead us through the forest. Sometimes we are in the treetops, sometimes down in the fauna. Sometimes in the tangled and thorny briar that conceals a fabled castle. At other times it is smeared with raindrops, or with condensation, that tries to conceal truth. It is like we are watching; and not wanting to be seen.
Luka (Francesco Villano) has arrived with his girlfriend Anna (Petra Valentini). At midnight it will become Anna’s birthday. It seems an odd choice of celebration, especially with Anna’s severe fear of birds, and with the trepidation with which Luka revisits a house evidently filled with past traumas. The house, however, isn’t empty as they had expected. Luka’s brother Theo (Emiliano Masala) has preceded them and made himself at home. A fourth character is a constant presence; suspended in the air, and in the brothers’ minds: a twin sister, Matilda, whose mysterious disappearance and/or death haunts the cottage as much as their own memories.
The atmosphere is electric. Directors Alessandro Ferroni and Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli tease out the story, dropping little hints and discoveries for us to follow, like breadcrumbs to help us find our way back again. The three performances are deeply evocative and unpredictable. Valentini captures the fear of a caged bird one minute while giving the impression that it is, in fact, her own will that keeps her from flying away. Villano and Masala, as Luka and Theo, have an instinctive sibling chemistry. They each have their own version of the past. Differing perspectives that clash in a discord. Very occasionally there is harmony, but one wrong note can trigger surprising verbal viciousness.
The play has a unique style. It flirts with realism yet always remains fantastical and fanciful. It is playful but capricious, and we are never too sure which way it will turn. Slightly frustratingly, though, we never really learn of the true motives of these characters; nor is there any true resolve, and reasons are often left unexplained. Yet the freshness of the writing makes it feel spontaneous and real, as though we are witnessing the words for the first time. “Uccellini (Little Birds)” is a collaborative staging by the ‘Lacasadargilla Collective’ and ‘Teatro Vascello’. It has a definite devised feel to it, a touch unpolished, yet firmly rooted in Conti’s finely structured script. Avante-garde and whimsical, while being quite earthy at the same time. Like a little bird that refuses to settle for long, it is only here for a short run, but it is well worth catching while you can. An exotic joy to witness.
UCCELLINI (LITTLE BIRDS)
The Coronet Theatre
Reviewed on 30th April 2026
by Jonathan Evans
Photography by Claudia Pajewski
