Following an award-winning and critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, with female, queer and neurodivergent perspectives centre stage, Birdwatching is a folk horror about the female experience that doesn’t look away.
Mimi Millmore as Amelia and Madeleine Farnhill as Poppy in Birdwatching | Photo © Ai Narapol
It is an intriguing play which finds school friends Amelia, Poppy and Lauren wild camping in the Northumberland forest.
As stories are shared and the darkness falls, their fears and insecurities rise to the surface. The focus for the audience surrounds the topics of neurodiversity, harassment in the street and LGBTQIA+ issues, alongside the notion of cultural voyeurism.
Directed by Chantell Walker, the cast features Madeleine Farnhill as Poppy, Ellen Trevaskiss as Lauren and Mimi Millmore as Amelia.
Performances are all detailed and each character is brimming with tension. The direction also ensures that the pace never falters and their fear is palpable in the intimate setting of the Ustinov.
It is not surprising that Birdwatching won the Best New Writing Award at The Spookies at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024. The play was also selected by the Chengdu-Chongqing International Theatre Festival for its 2024 programme and received a nomination for the Birds of Paradise Exceptional Theatre Award in The Neurodiverse Review Awards 2024.
Black Bright Theatre Company is creating important and urgent conversations in theatre-making and new writing. The complexities of the female characters are fresh and essential in the storytelling.
It is an excellent achievement and no doubt Black Bright will continue to champion the female voice with this vibrant young company.
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Reviewer: Petra Schofield
