The Birds

This was the first Rose Theatre studio offering by The Nonentities Society. A suspenseful, atmospheric adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's enthralling short story exploring the themes of isolation, fear and human fragility in the face of an unknown natural threat. (Alfred Hitchcock’s film of The Birds in 1963 drew inspiration from this story.)

Mysterious masses of birds have begun to attack violently at high tide, driving strangers Nat and Diane to take refuge in an isolated, abandoned house by the sea and form a bond to survive their haunting new circumstance. With no electricity and scarce food, the tension is palpable, and hope is waning. Yet if two is company, three is a crowd, as the sudden arrival of a young woman with a mysterious nature of her own, ruffles feathers in the house and quickly threatens to destroy their so-called sanctuary.

Given the size of the studio and its 60- seat capacity, the audience on three sides of the playing area was met with a very clever set consisting of a downstairs sitting room / dining area with a fireplace, a window and external door both boarded up for safety. The background sound of ominous waves added to the setting, as we learn that the birds come and go with the change of the tide.

Nat is lying on the settee, sick and delirious whilst Diane tries to comfort him. Stefan Austin as Nat was excellent; you felt his agitation and mood swings throughout the play and I was impressed with his depth of concentration given the close proximity of the audience.  Hannah Danby as Diane was also very good; she has also quite separately taken refuge in the house and you felt her anxiety as the action develops.

In a later scene – there are 16 in total covering almost a year  - Julia arrives played by Shelly Blackmore. Julia has a head wound allegedly from being attacked whilst hiding out elsewhere and Diane helps re-dress it. As time goes on, Julia brings discord to the group as she becomes more and more familiar with Nat and Blackmore handles this well.  All three end up hiding under a blanket during an attack of the birds at high tide. Julia manages to get food and they celebrate Nat’s birthday getting rather tipsy, but strangely Julia cannot remember where it was from and a subsequent search fails. In thanking the girls, Danby gives a moving speech and this is followed by another by Blackmore when speaking of an attack on a woman by the birds who had removed her eyes. 

In Act 2 the tension is palpable in the silence between the characters. A local farmer called Tierney arrives, well played by David Wilkes and makes a pass at Diane, claiming he has food and medicine and she should join him. There is a big row between Diane and Julia who claims to be pregnant. When both Tierney and Julia separately present the same jar of pears, which turn out to be onions, further suspicions are raised about their relationship. When Julia goes to search for Nat, Diane blocks the door preventing her return.

There was an occasional moment when despite the size of the studio, the odd word was possibly lost to the audience seated behind the actor, but the quality of acting throughout was excellent by all involved and although not a long play it was intense and skilfully directed by Jennifer Eglinton. Thank you for the warm welcome and I look forward to more productions by this talented group.

 

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