Review: BIRDIE at Oz Arts Nashville

“Birdie. Noun. 1.) A small bird. 2.) A score of one stroke under par at a hole.”

Sixty-three years ago, legendary director Alfred Hitchcock released a movie called The Birds. Even if you've never seen the movie, you've most likely seen some images of people being terrorized by birds in a small town. This iconic piece of cinema still draws discussion six decades later. Whether viewers are praising the pre-CGI affects that were accomplished or criticizing how Hitchcock mistreated leading lady Tippi Hedren, people are still talking about it. Like many of Hitchcock's projects, this one has influenced all types of artists over the years. On one end of the spectrum, you've got the low-budget horror film Birdemic: Shock and Terror, which I dare you to watch without laughing. On the other end, you've got Birdie, a theatrical achievement from Spain that uses storytelling in the form of live camera feed, pictures, and miniatures. The show recently ran for two nights at Oz Arts Nashville as part of its three-city tour in Nashville, LA, and New York. This genre-defying piece by Agrupación Señor Serrano takes a truly remarkable path in telling a story about migration. 

After witnessing Birdie on January 30th, I immediately wondered where I was even going to begin while writing my review. Where do you start after witnessing so much in just an hour? I guess we should start with the wonderful folks who brought this piece all the way from Spain. Agrupación Señor Serrano was founded by Alèx Serrano in Barcelona in 2006, and the other members include Pau Palacios, Barbara Bloin, David Muñez, and Paula S. Viteri. The company creates original productions based on stories of contemporary times, and they use innovative ways to share these stories with audiences. With their combined uses of videos, sound designs, and scale models, the productions are just as complex as the real-life events that inspire them.

With about 20 years of experience, Agrupación Señor Serrano certainly knows how to lure in their audience. From the moment I walked through the doors to the theatre, the first thing I heard was the chirping of birds. As I sat in the front row (where else would I rather be seated?), I took as much notice of the set that I could in the limited lighting. With the only glow coming from the projection screen displaying the play’s name, I could see a small golf course with miniatures laid out carefully. Unsurprisingly, I noticed that before I saw the figure in the red hoodie seated on a table with its back to the audience. I immediately wondered if I was looking at an actor skilled in sitting perfectly still rather than a dummy. I’m a visual learner, so if you’re able to draw me in with just your set before your show begins, I’m already on board. 

This show isn’t just about migration; it’s also about images. Simone Milsdochter’s addictive voiceover explains that deciphering images takes effort, and most people would rather take the easy way out. Milsdochter states, “People trust images because putting them into question would mean putting into question the comfort of their own existence.” We are shown an image from the Spanish city of Melilla in Northern Africa that was taken in 2014. In it, I immediately see the golf course located by the city’s fence. It isn’t until Milsdochter mentions how we don’t notice everything in a photo that I notice the migrants trying to climb over the fence. One of the figures on the fence is wearing a red hoodie, which explains the figure on the table. This show encourages the audience to notice everything.

While the show focuses heavily on images, the performers are just as important as the visuals. The performers control the cameras that produce live feed on the projection screen in the back. In the opening scene, one performer moves the camera on a table as another performer moves ideas around like a pack of cigarettes and a collection of news articles. Later on, we witness the most impressive sequence in which the cameras follow lines of miniature babies and animals migrating across the golf course. The camera picks up footage of the figurines enduring harsh climates and weather, and the audience witness a performer blowing sand to produce a sand storm and spraying a bottle to produce rain. I remember hearing some audience members laugh at the sight of the water knocking some tiny zebras off of rocks, but my heart sank knowing what it all represented. The laughter died as we transitioned from zebras being knocked off rocks to the depictions of animal and baby figurines sinking in water and being buried in dirt. Once we see some of the figurines reach the hole in the course, I feel some relief at the sight of them sliding down the hole to a new life.

So, what does this all have to do with Hitchcock’s famous movie? Milsdochter mentions how Hitchcock himself stated that he believed that the movie would be the same without the birds. It’s all about paranoia. Maybe the residents of Bodega Bay were so worried about the birds that they unknowingly caused destruction in their delusions. Who knows? The attacks in the movie are shocking because it is never clear why the birds would act this way. According to various analyses on the Internet, the bird attacks could symbolize anything from nature fighting back against abuse from humans to destruction that can arise from human actions. Perhaps the sudden violence in the movie mirrored the sudden violence and harsh living conditions that would cause animals and humans to migrate in the first place. Perhaps the creators were inspired by the practicality of the movie and were inspired to do something similar for their show. Perhaps this iconic Hollywood movie was selected as inspiration because it’s iconic enough to draw in an audience for this Spanish show. I’ll admit that I’m still not entirely sure. Then again, I find that it’s often more effective to leave things up to interpretation than to give out all the answers all at once. 

Out of all the shows that I could’ve reviewed, I’m glad that Birdie is the first one that I get to cover on this website. When I was a theatre student in college, I learned about the more experimental side of theatre. Up until now, I had never gotten the chance to view something as experimental and unique as Birdie. It’s a piece that really challenges you to take everything in and see the bigger picture. Some of the things that you miss the first time can provide so much clarity in the long run. In the end, I felt just as satisfied as the red hooded figure when they finally got off the table to move to the front of the stage to take flight.