STARBURST first encountered Black Bright Theatre last year with their show The Hunger. Their latest offering is the rather haunting Birdwatching, a three-person horror story about isolation and friendship that also warns about the perils of camping.
The plot sees three troubled friends on a camping trip somewhere in the middle of Northumbria. Each character has a distinct personality: the bossy, controlling one, the more free-spirited/alcoholic one and finally, the overly nervous one who has a lot of trouble making friends. It obvious early on that all the characters are young, inexperienced and not a single one of them is stable.
Much like The Hunger, this is marvellously produced slow-drip horror. We start off slow; the crew is a little lost, and they decide to camp somewhere that isn’t ideal but close enough to their needs. Whilst setting up the tent, they discover a bird’s nest and rather unwisely decide to move it. As anyone who’s read, heard or watched a horror story will know, it is a bad idea; one never defies nature when you’re at its mercy.
A few unwise words here, some stupid games to pass the time there, and we begin a gentle decline into madness and horror. As each person unravels, we learn more about why they are who they are and how they’ve ended up in a muddy field that even the gods won’t touch. It’s a little bit cliché in terms of story structure, but the performances are incredibly strong, and it is a very good ‘spooky shaggy dog story’. After all, we don’t go to horror stories for the structure, but for the lingering chills, we feel for the day.
In parts, the show is reminiscent of Neil Marshall’s classic The Descent, certainly in terms of tension building, though obviously, this is a simply staged fringe show rather than a big-budget horror movie. Distinctly regional in tone and strongly feminist throughout, Birdwatching is a fantastic piece of horror theatre that you should absolutely seek out (or lobby your local horror convention to book for you.)
Chilling. Clever. Spooky as all hell. A horror classic in the making. Go check it out while you can still see it.
Tickets for Birdwatching at the Edinburgh Fringe can be found here and future tour information is here.
The show is also in partnership with the charity Strut Safe, a phone line service for folk who need reassurance when walking home alone.
