The caged bird sings

As director Buck Busfield explained to the audience before the opening of his newest show The Conference of the Birds, B Street Theatre's smaller theater space known as the B2 stage is used to stage more intimate, thought-provoking theater productions. It's a change from the lighter fare that it generally delivers in the main theater, he says, and gives B Street room to experiment.

And that's exactly what B Street does with The Conference of the Birds. It takes a 4,500-line 12th-century philosophically profound poem by Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar and adapts it into an hour-long stage production with mixed results. Bravo to Busfield for taking on such an ambitious task of trying to capture this mythical, mystical Persian narration, with a cast who portrays the birds of the world, philosophies that include the core concepts of Sufism, and original Farsi-language songs and music by local composer Noah Argus.

While the six-member cast is enthusiastic and full of energy and good intentions, they're burdened by a condensed adaptation that doesn't quite do the esoteric and existential poem justice—and perhaps tries to cram too much into a short time span. The main story consists of the wisest bird, the hoopoe (Elisabeth Nunziato), gathering various birds for an epic journey across the world to confer with the wisest bird of all, the mythical Persian Simorgh. Along the way, we visit parables, short stories and paths to personal truths about the self and about the divine.

However, there are many delightful moments in this short production, which not only delves into deep thought, but also is peppered with nice comedic moments. It's a timely reminder that conflicts seems constant, as does the hope for peace. In addition to Nunziato, there's Ryan Adame as the heron, Nikki Massoud as the dove, Meher Mistry as the exotic bird, Carly Wielstein as the sparrow and Nikhil Shukla as the falcon.

The cast is cohesive, though it needs a few more performances under its belt to help the group and the story to coalesce a bit more.