In this short-but-sweet play, the ornithophile Cooper adapts JFK’s famous line of argument; he asks not what carrier pigeons can do for the inhabitants of Dovecote Parva, but what the inhabitants of Dovecote Parva can do for their carrier pigeons.
Set in a recognisable contemporary world, there is one aspect of the past that the citizens of this sleepy British village have clung on to: the domesticated carrier pigeon. To some, like Jean, it is time to modernise and introduce pedestrian mail. To others, like Cooper, the avian tradition is worth fighting for.
Tensions in the post office run high. Thomas Cornell’s floundering, sentimental Cooper comes head-to-head with Will Sedgley’s pragmatic Jean in a town hall debate. The audience even get involved in the final vote. Although, there is no pressure to interact. Alongside the two antipodes is the post office’s clerk, Kit. Unfortunately, Kit’s stance on whether to maintain or disband the pigeon postal system is as unclear as her dramatic function.
Writer and director Edison Juniper has created some charming moments in Royal Pigeon Mail. For example, most of the pigeon puns were successfully groan-worthy, with the ‘a-coo-stics’ of the town hall being a notable audience favourite. So, if you will allow me, coo-dos to Juniper for those. However, several points, such as the wordplay with Jean’s name, were over-explained and would have been punchier if the audience were entrusted with understanding the joke.
Of similar dissatisfaction, the characters lacked the emotional depth which would have given the climactic debate the high stakes it deserved. As an allegory for the automation of human labour and passion, the debate should have plucked dread and pity from the audience. Particularly as AI continues to conquer all in the name of efficiency. In reality, little stir was created.
That said, alongside the pressing luddite branch of the debate was a telling exposé on small-town politics. Jean’s Machiavellian strand shone through as he injured one of Cooper’s pigeons to falsely prove the untrustworthiness of the system, and as he bribed and treated the debate as a performance. There is an important message of history, equality, community, and caring for nature nestled (or perhaps, nested) in the fast, oft-stuttered delivery of lines.
As Cooper promulgates, we must uphold “joviality and eccentricity against our conformist world.”
Royal Pigeon Mail is running until 23 August at theSpace @ Symposium Hall Annexe.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of theSpaceUK, provided to The Student as press material.