Birdwatching
The scattered leaves of autumn covering the ground on a bright September day, one of the hottest on record so long as the sun is up, the air is filled with the songs of the birds calling for attention and companionship as Poppy, Amelia and Lauren seek a suitable spot to camp for the night, the trip to Northumberland their last adventure together before Poppy starts university and Amelia travels to Australia in search of sunshine and surfer boys, while Lauren will no doubt continue to do whatever it is she normally does when the others aren’t around.
Whatever that might be, the evidence is that it is not coping with the smallest of responsibilities, having hiked miles into the forest only to realise that she left her tent behind as well as the bag of booze, Poppy and Amelia biting back harsh comments and trying to reassure Lauren that they do not blame her, that they all have flaws and failings, but as the sun sets the girls vent their frustration, feeling the eyes of the forest upon them and maybe something more, as though they violated something when they moved the bird’s nest and its shiny eggs…
Black Bright Theatre having body-slammed the Fringe last year with the sharp unforgiving blade of The Hunger, they return this year with Birdwatching, Poppy (writer Madeleine Farnhill) able to identify different species by their call but blind to the misgivings of her two supposedly closest friends, Amelia and Lauren (Mimi Millmore and Ellen Trevaskiss) also hiding their own generous shares of trauma and rejection brought to the fore in the silence of the forest where there is no noise to drown out their thoughts.
Of different temperaments, Poppy seen as the planner, Amelia’s impulsiveness bordering on irresponsible and Lauren dismissed as the hanger on, with no booze to dull their anger and in circumstances which don’t lend themselves to sisterhood whichever way it falls it will always be two against the odd woman out, and with minimal set, props and lighting director Chantell Walker and her ensemble distil the complexity of years of friendship, rivalry and resentment into one hour in the darkened forest from which none of the trio will emerge the same person.
Birdwatching continues until Sunday 10th August at theSpace on the Mile then transfers to theSpace on Jeffrey Street until Saturday 24th August
