‘Featherbaby’ is another Melendy triumph at GBSC

By Rich Fahey

STONEHAM – By any account, Paul Melendy has found an artistic home with the Greater Boston Stage Company.

He has lent his talents to many area stages, but the gifted comic actor has authored a series of triumphant performances that have had GBSC patrons wondering: What’s next?

So, in the wake of his Norton Award-winning solo outing in “The Legend of  Sleepy Hollow” and a dazzling display of theatrical versatility in “Dinner for One,” he is now onstage at GBSC playing … a parrot.

Not just any parrot. He is a delightful, sassy, yellow-cheeked parrot from the Amazon rainforest in GBSC’s co-world premiere production of “Featherbaby,” now onstage through Sept. 28.

Greater Boston Stage’s artistic director, Weylin Symes, who directs, said in program notes that he first read “Featherbaby” two years ago and fell in love with it, immediately feeling the play was written with Melendy in mind, even though playwright  David Templeton is based in California. Symes couldn’t imagine anyone else playing the part, and when Melendy signed on, he made sure to include it this season as the annual Don Fulton New Works Project play. A theater company in California is holding a concurrent run.

“Featherbaby” is one of a kind. I can’t recall any other piece of theater told from the point of view of a bird.  Featherbaby struts and preens on a pink wicker chair “perch”: Kudos to set designer Katy Monthei. They (it’s almost impossible to tell a parrot’s sex, hence the pronoun) look good and they know it as they beg for treats (“num-nums”).

Of course, parrots – which can live up to 70 years in captivity — can be trained to say just about anything, and the very-territorial Featherbaby needs very little encouragement to lace into a profanity-laden outburst, when one of his human handlers – he calls humans “unfeathered” — displeases him. Their sharp beak allows them to apply instant punishment when something disturbs them.

Featherbaby resides in the home of a free-spirited woman named Angie (Liz Dumaine), a crime-scene photographer with a dark sense of humor, who has recently broken up with a woman named Catherine and is living on her own.   She has met a man named Mason (Gabriel Graetz), who is a contract manager in the area of animal law. The two have bonded over their mutual love of jigsaw puzzles and puzzle competitions and there are sparks of desire between the two that set Featherbaby on edge.

Angie explains her devotion to the bird, telling Mason that five years before, she was in the hospital and struggling. On her therapist’s advice, she went to a pet store and chose a sick, near-death parrot that “really needed her.” Over the following year, she and Featherbaby  “basically healed each other” and “saved each other’s lives.”

Mason moves in. The bird, however, takes an instant dislike to Mason, and that dislike is returned in full as Mason addresses them as “S***bird.” Featherbaby has an instant reply in mind whenever they hear their “Name”: “Poop.” And they do, anywhere and everywhere.

Suddenly, Featherbaby resides in the cage and under a blanket. When the mercurial Liz suddenly decides to get back with Catherine, Mason is dismayed, both at losing her and having to mind Featherbaby for six weeks while Liz and Catherine sort out their affairs. Featherbaby is equally hurt at having their world upended. Six weeks turn into 12, and then six months more, as Angie keeps promising to return and claim the bird.

Early on, the battle of wills between Featherbaby and Mason turns into a hilarious aviary War of the Roses, as they take turns torturing each other.

Mason is padded and protected like a hockey goalie from Featherbaby’s bites, but the bird resorts to tossing pieces from Mason’s giant crossword puzzle around the house. Mason delivers his favorite nickname for the bird, who responds in kind by defecating here, there and everywhere.

Mason and Featherbaby – out of sheer necessity  before they kill each other —  begin to bond,  Mason opens up a whole new world for the bird, taking him along on an assignment to see an elephant, and adding other adventures that strenghten their relationship.

Playwright Templeton and Melendy are able to create a full palette of emotions for Featherbaby,  and along the way we begin to understand his world, a very bumpy journey on the way to becoming a peaceful and content creature. We hear about their dreams of th early days in the rainforest, avoiding the ocelots and just trying to survive. It turns out that being a birdbrain can encompass pretty complicated thoughts.

The squawking and biting gradually subside. Watching the relationship between Mason and Melendy’s Featherbaby evolve is a pleasure and a treat, as is meeting such an interesting feathered friend. This production is – pardon the expression – another feather in Melendy’s cap.

The Greater Boston Stage Company production of “Featherbaby.” Written by David Templeton. Directed by Weylin Symes.  Scenic design by Katy Monthei. Lighting design by Matt Cost. Costume design by Deidre Gerrard. Sound design by MacKenzie Adamick. At the Greater Boston  Stage Company through Sept. 28.greaterbostonstage.org