Sydney

Feathers fly and beaks pierce in this contemporary take on Daphne du Maurier’s horror classic.

Gothic horror is officially having a revival. Nosferatu by Robert Eggers. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. STC’s production of Dracula, starring Cynthia Erivo, on London’s West End. Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca is revered within the gothic horror canon, alongside her short story The Birds.

Du Maurier’s ‘The Birds’ is a tight, terrifying tale written and set in Cornwall, in the 1950s. This is post-war England. Men and women that fought against fascism and survived the blitz. The story focuses on Nat, his unnamed wife and their children, Johnny and Jill.

Without warning, the birds begin to flock, and attack. They gather, out to sea, in the winter fields. Driven by the east wind. Besieging the family. Drawing blood with stabbing beaks.

Nat is more prepared that his distant neighbours. He observes and acts. Others fall victim to the birds, their bodies left lying in and around their homes.

Alfred Hitchock’s classic chiller ‘The Birds’ followed in 1963, shifting the action to Bodega Bay, California. Hitchcock took the title and the concept and had Evan Hunter (better known by his pen name, Ed McBain) rewrite the story.

Hitchcock’s movie centres on socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedron’s debut) and lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) as the birds attack and they struggle to survive and keep Brenner’s mother Lydia and young sister Cathy alive. (Interesting side note: Cathy is played by teen Veronica Cartwright, who went on to play Lambert in Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi horror, Alien.)

In 2026, Belvoir presents Malthouse Theatre’s production of ‘The Birds,’ directed by Matthew Lutton (The Return, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Bloody Chamber) and adapted Louise Fox (Glitch, Tartuffe, The Trial)

Lutton and Fox decided to transpose the story to Australia, to a small seaside town somewhere in Victoria, bringing the action up to date with mobile phones, pandemics and conspiracy theories.

Australia is the only country in the world to fight, and lose, a war against birds. In 1932, the military, armed with Lewis machine-guns, were sent to Western Australia to defend the wheatbelt in the Great Emu War. Australia is legendary for its deadly fauna from funnel web spiders and red-bellied black snakes to sharks and stonefish. Birds and quokkas are among the few things that aren’t trying to kill you.

Despite the Australian setting, the attacking birds are predominantly the gulls and gannet of Du Maurier’s short story. I’ve seen sulphur-crested cockatoos eat a trampoline and hack through wire screen doors with hooked beaks and talons. We never hear these natives in the soundscape. No screeching cockatoos or menacing kookaburra laughter. I’m afraid that if Australia’s birds suddenly turned murderous, we wouldn’t survive the 80-minute duration of the play.

Lutton and Fox’s decision to make this a one-woman show, casting Paula Arundell (The Master and Margarita, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) was a masterstroke.

Arundell leads as Tessa. She is Nat’s unnamed wife from Du Maurier’s short story given the name of Melanie Daniel’s unseen aunt from Hitchcock’s movie. Arundell shifts roles and voices as Tessa talks to her husband, children and neighbours. This is a choice – and like Vegemite you may love or hate it. For me this jumping between roles was a misstep, dragging us out of the building tension, throwing the focus away from Tessa to other characters that will never be fully realised. In an 80-minute show, every moment away from that central character is a loss and the zig zagging was distracting.

The adaption introduces other issues. Australianisms and moment of humour pierce the rising tension, deflating the horror. We lose the gradual building terror of Du Maurier’s original story, where she deftly escalates from waves of small birds to gulls and gannet, and the grim finality of the birds of prey with their sharp beaks and deadly talons. There was no light comedy to dull that horror. Do 2026 audiences need respite or giggles?

Warnings in the programme include coarse language, and graphic descriptions of violence, harm and death. The coarse language is grating. Does a play really need the F-word and C-word thrown around to be contemporary or authentic? They added nothing but took a lot. Likewise, Fox’s graphic and gory descriptions of the dead and dying add little but shock value. The audience’s imaginations can conjure these horrors without a list of brutal injuries and mutilated body parts.

This is a production with no actual birds. No animatronics, no puppets, no projections. The bird attacks are conjured with stabbing sound and fierce white light. The effect is visceral and nothing short of brilliant. Lighting Designer, Niklas Pajanti, and Composer and Sound Designer, J. David Franzke’s collaboration is breathtaking.

Kat Chan’s set appears minimalist at first glance. Three white windows and pitch-black staging. The outline of Tessa’s house as a raised platform. The inclusion of a treadmill felt like a gimmick. When Arundell is running for her life, it sadly looks more like she’s jogging at a 24-hour gym. (Useless fact: Hitchcock used a treadmill on a soundstage for the scene where the schoolchildren flee the crows. They ran on a treadmill, in a cage, while handlers threw live birds at their heads!) Chan’s set extends above Arundell’s head as the roof threatens to cave in on Tessa. I may have imagined it but there seem to be black bird boxes hiding among the stage lights. Black roofs, holes cut in their sides, like little gothic haunted bird houses.

Paula Arundell is a force to be reckoned with. Horror is often looked down on as a genre. But Australian actors have taken horror roles as an opportunity to shine. Nicole Kidman in The Others. Toni Collette in Hereditary. Samara Weaving in Ready or Not. Naomi Watts in The Ring. Essie Davis in The Babadook. Paula Arundell appeared in Late Night with the Devil. She plays Tessa as the final girl, initially confused and afraid but gradually adapting and finding her power, fighting back to protect the ones she loves.

Arundell’s barnstorming performance, and the lighting, sound and set design lift this production, creating a gothic horror for the post-pandemic, post-truth age.

To book tickets to The Birds, please visit https://belvoir.com.au/productions/the-birds/.

Photographer: Brett Boardman

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