Venue: Belvoir St Theatre (Surry Hills NSW), May 16 – Jun 7, 2026
Playwright: Louise Fox (from the novel by Daphne de Maurier)
Director: Matthew Lutton
Cast: Paula Arundell
Images by Pia Johnson

Theatre review

In Louise Fox’s stage adaptation of The Birds, the opening scenes find Tessa repelling fifty invading avian assailants from her home with fierce, maternal resolve. By the second day, the sky has darkened with swarms bent solely on human annihilation. In this contemporary reimagining of Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 narrative, Fox not only shifts the protagonist from husband to wife but also transposes the story’s psychic register—from post-war unease to the distinctly modern terrors of ecological collapse and technological dominion. Working within the conceit of horror fantasy, Fox crafts a vividly absorbing meditation on the paralysis that accompanies our present awareness of impending, seemingly inevitable catastrophe.

Paula Arundell commands the stage alone, her eminently sympathetic presence grounding the surreal narrative in an air of authenticity. She renders Tessa with such sustained credibility that the audience remains unwaveringly allied with her struggle, compelled to will her survival even as circumstances turn increasingly phantasmagoric. Director Matthew Lutton leans into the text’s genre elements, drawing spectators into Tessa’s escalating dread while prompting reflection upon our individual and collective relationship to the disquieting features of our current moment. Yet the production occasionally suffers from Lutton’s largely restrained approach; a work of such unbridled imagination might have flourished under a more audacious, extravagant directorial hand.

Kat Chan’s production design opts for elegant simplicity—largely effective, though the text’s expansive vision clearly invites a more spectacular scenic realization. Niklas Pajanti’s lighting memorably punctuates the drama’s most harrowing junctures with startling precision, but it is J. David Franzke’s sound design and composition that truly conjure the atmosphere of foreboding, rendering the murderous flock’s malevolent presence viscerally, irrefutably real.

The birds’ ferocious, overwhelming assault mirrors the paralysis induced by our contemporary predicament—not merely environmental and technological crises, but the relentless barrage of political conflict and warfare. In an era saturated with information, we find ourselves perpetually stupefied and disempowered by the unceasing torrent of horrors arriving from every quarter. Tessa’s distinction lies in her refusal of passivity; confronted with hopelessness, she can do nothing but resist. It is a lesson that resonates with urgent, uncomfortable clarity.

www.belvoir.com.au | www.malthousetheatre.com.au