{"id":110068,"date":"2025-08-31T14:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=110068"},"modified":"2025-09-22T21:08:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T04:08:34","slug":"featherbaby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/featherbaby\/","title":{"rendered":"Featherbaby"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong>Surreality with Bite<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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World premieres are always unpredictable. David Templeton\u2019s Featherbaby takes that truth and runs with it \u2014 or rather, flies with it. This is a play told largely through the mind of Featherbaby, a rambunctious, foul-mouthed Amazon parrot who narrates, manipulates, and disrupts the lives of the humans around it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The central tension comes when Angie, a quirky crime-scene photographer, brings Mason, a reserved puzzle competitor, into her world. Featherbaby does not approve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feeling threatened and territorial, the parrot wages war on Mason, biting (literally drawing blood), cursing, and scheming to sabotage the relationship. It\u2019s needy, vulgar, and aggressively manipulative \u2014 not, from my perspective, an attractive character at all. But that is the point: this is a parrot with personality to spare, and the play\u2019s drama and comedy spring from its relentless, often unsettling behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At Spreckels, the title role alternates between Gina Alvarado and Matthew Cadigan. On the night I attended, it was Alvarado\u2019s turn. She threw herself into the part with fearless commitment. At times her performance tipped toward the theatrical extreme, but always with conviction. She made the parrot magnetic and disturbing in equal measure, pulling the audience into a surreal but oddly familiar emotional tug-of-war.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mercedes Murphy, Gina Alvarado, Nate Musser<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Photo Credit: Jeff Thomas<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The other characters \u2014 Mercedes Murphy as Angie and Nate Musser as Mason \u2014 provide the human framework. Yet in many ways they function as enablers, allowing Featherbaby\u2019s bad behavior to dominate. Director Skylar Evans leans into this imbalance, crafting a production where the bird\u2019s chaos drives the arc from conflict to an unexpected, if uneasy, connection between Featherbaby and Mason.<\/span><\/p>\n

The design team reinforces this off-kilter world. Eddy Hansen\u2019s lighting and set sketch out an environment where reality blurs into imagination, while Jessica Johnson\u2019s sound design sharpens every moment of comic violence or tenderness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Featherbaby is not cozy theater. It\u2019s messy, bold, and occasionally vulgar. But that\u2019s exactly its strength. Templeton has written a play that dares to put an unlikeable character at the center and challenges the audience to wrestle with it. And with Gina Alvarado\u2019s performance, Featherbaby becomes hard to forget.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

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Featherbaby \u2014 needy, vulgar, manipulative \u2026 memorable.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And if one talking parrot isn\u2019t enough, click here<\/a><\/span> to experience another.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To See Featherbaby<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park<\/span>
August 29 \u2013 September 14, 2025<\/span>
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2:00 p.m.; additional matinee Saturday, September 13 at 2:00 p.m.<\/span>
Tickets: spreckelsonline.com<\/a> or (707) 588-3400<\/span>
Prices: $14 \u2013 $34<\/span><\/p>\n