Most of us would have come across Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 short story, The Birds, through Alfred Hitchcock’s movie adaptation (1963), wherein over a few days, a mass avian flock attacks a small town. Hitchcock has said that over 3200 real birds were trained to use in the film. However, this iteration, adapted by Louise Fox, bears little resemblance to the movie, so don’t go expecting a traumatised icy blonde and her saviour boyfriend skittering around town trying to escape the beady, predatory glares of a avian cast of thousands.
There are precisely no birds at all on stage, which for the most part is bare (all the better to concentrate on the words and the sounds). Upon entry, the audience is asked to put on headphones placed on individual chairs, and through the headset, are piped the voice of Tessa (Paula Arundell), as well as the conversations of other characters, natural elements like wind and waves and of course the cacophony of birds of all types and sizes, all primed for attack. That there’s a gender change in narrator from the original in Du Maurier’s tale makes little difference to the narration itself.
It’s a feat of imagination, the visceral terror that slowly builds as Tessa, her family (husband Nat and kids Johnny and Jill) and the rest of her neighbourhood are besieged – and for no explicable reason – in this hitherto quiet, sleepy coastal town. Even more troubling is that this feathery invasion is occurring across the country in what seems like a series of coordinated attacks.
The army of birds also appear to wield a personal vendetta against humans; animals like pets and livestock are left unbothered and unharmed. Soon, conspiracy theories are trying to rationalise this sudden outbreak. A change of weather patterns, drawing the creatures inland? A terrorist move by the Chinese Government? A virus or contagion? No one knows for sure and the uncertainty fuels the terror.
Amplified by J. David Franzke’s sound design, we listen in horror to learn that, being so many in numbers, the collective birds’ dark mass blocks out the sun; they’re even smart enough to gather together and bring down a helicopter in a deliberate act of kamikaze self-destruction.
It’s a wise decision to move the action to contemporary times, and to shift it from the UK’s Cornwall to Australia, with solo performer Arundell an Everywoman who commands our sympathy from the start. She also easily switches between numerous characters, differentiating between them in tone and manner. As the protagonist Tessa, her initial confusion and unease turn into outright panic as she tries to protect herself and her family.
The soundscape is creepy, effective, and not overplayed. We hear the pecking on windowpanes, the flutter of enraged wings overhead and the cackling rampage. Niklas Pajanti’s lighting, too, imbues the stage in doomsday gloom, only for sporadic bursts of bright lights to momentarily blind the audience as the birds swoop and veer and expose bloody skin.
A misstep, however, is the scene where Tessa comes across the grisly results of the birds’ actions – it feels indulgently overdone and needs editing. There is no need to be so explicit in a show that otherwise trades so effectively on suggestion.
Read: Musical review: Beetlejuice the Musical, Regent Theatre
We’re not long from the worst of COVID times with all its attendant fear and paranoia. The national and worldwide concern about the effects of climate change also makes The Birds‘ modern interpretation feel timely and prescient.
With just 80 minutes run time, The Birds is a short and sharp immersive aural experience that’s more faithful to the Du Maurier story than the Hitchcock glamour piece.
The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier
Malthouse Theatre
Adapted by Louise Fox
Director: Matthew Lutton
Set and Costume Designer: Kat Chan
Lighting Designer: Niklas Pajanti
Composer and Sound Designer: J David Frankze
Assistant Director: Marni Mount
Assistant Lighting Designer: Sidney Younger
Stage Manager: Rosemary Osmond
Cast: Paula Arundell
The Birds will be performed until 7 June 2025.
