Sun. May 30

Last call! In February, Ryan Landry - not exactly a shy or slumming actor and playwrite - was named one of the 2010 Playwriting Fellows. Which to a certain degree positions the outre comedic Landry in the mainstream, or at least opens the door. So, what's he up to now? He's back at the Machine, his theater/club of choice, reviving a play he wrote 7 years ago, "The Gulls." Now, Landry is noted for his post-modern and gay-and-drag oriented twists on classic (or well-known) works, and is particularly clever with titling. He's given us "Willy Wanker and the Hershey Highway,"  "All About Christmas Eve," "Death of a Saleslady," "A T-Stop Named Denial," and "Valet of the Dolls." In March, he put up "Phantom of the Oprah" and he's writing "Peter Pansy."

"The Gulls," you think? What's the angle, the jumpoff for this? It's Hitchcock and "The Birds," a movie that scared my little brain to bits when I saw way before I should have as a kid. It probably inspired a wee Stephen King to think, "Ah, everyday creatures can turn into monsters, hmmm." And it inspired Landry in the early aughts to write this story about a spoiled rich girl, Melanie Daniels (Penny Champayne) who walks into a pet shop looking for love. She found the gulls.
Landry's company, The Gold Dust Orphans, have "The Gulls" up every weekend, Friday-Sunday, from May 7 to May 30. Landry is one clever bastard and no one betters him when describing what he does. He writes: "'The Gulls'" is a story about birds, sure. All sorts of birds. But it's also a story about people. New Englanders like you and me. People going about their daily lives, working, loving, struggling, living … never knowing that all the time they're being watched … from above.

And who are the people in our story?
Well, there's wealthy newspaper heiress, Melanie Daniels, a good time gal with too much time on her hands. There's rugged veterinarian Mitch Brenner, a no nonsense kind of man who's about to fall in love. There's Mitch's ice cold mother, Lydia. A real barrel of laughs until the day you try and cross her.There's Mitch's seven foot tall sister Kathy. That's pretty big for a ten year old! There's Mitch's poor depressed ex- girlfriend, Annie, she's a schoolteacher. Not to mention a whole slew of townfolk! Some real characters!But let's forget about the people for a moment … Let's talk about the birds. One thousand, two hundred and twenty three birds at last count. And the number is growing.
Coming out of the sky, up through the floorboards, crashing through windows and doors! … What it it they want?! Why have they come here?! … HOW THE FUCK DO WE ESCAPE THEM?!!!"
And that's why we want to go to the play. Well, one of the reasons.

Aside from Champane in the Tipp Hedron role, he's got Chris Loftus as Mitch and Olive Another as Lydia with P.J. McWhiskers as Kathy - some of these may be stage names, people - with Landry playing Annie Heywood.

It closes today with the Sunday show at 5. Tickets: $45-$35.

1254 Boylston St., 617-625-6222 www.golddustorphans.com