BIRDS to Make Edinburgh Festival Fringe Debut with House of Oz
Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford's award-winning absurdist comedy plays Assembly The Box.
BIRDS: Alex Hines & Sarah Stafford will come to Assembly The Box , 5 -30 August. On a beach, Shayna- a wealthy five-time divorcee and Beverley -a mother of twelve boys -settle into deckchairs beneath the blazing sun, chain-smoking and chatting endlessly as paradise slowly collapses around them.
Birds fall from the sky. Skin melts. Time stretches into infinity. Still, they refuse to leave.
With towering wigs, tiny bikinis and an escalating sense of doom, BIRDS transforms from high-joke-rate Australian comedy into a sweat-soaked fever dream about denial, helplessness and humanity's ability to keep smiling while the world burns. Described as 'this generation's Waiting for Godot if Beckett had ADHD and spiralled into psychosis', the show blends razor-sharp satire with body horror, absurdism and distinctly Australian chaos.
Fresh from sold-out seasons across Australia, the multi award-winning absurdist comedy BIRDS makes its Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut as part of the prestigious House of Oz 2026 season.
Created and performed by Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford, where it became one of Australia's most talked-about new theatrical comedies.
Winner of Best Comedy at Melbourne Fringe Festival 2025 and championed by comedy icon Hannah Gadsby as a must-see show of Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2026, BIRDS is a delirious collision of camp comedy, body horror and climate apocalypse theatre.
Creators and performers Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford said: 'BIRDS is an absurdist masterpiece (according to us), exploring paralysis as means of coping with inevitable doom. It's camp, it's comedy, it's catastrophic. Come for the laugh, stay for the end of days - BYO beach towels xoxo'
The production is created and performed by Alex Hines & Sarah Stafford. Produced by House of Oz in collaboration with Sons of Susan, Fine & Dandy and Token, the show marks the Edinburgh debut for comedy duo Hines and Stafford, whose previous credits include collaborations with Australian comedy heavyweights including Aunty Donna, Hannah Gadsby and Aaron Chen.
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