Emerging local playwright and performer Nathan Harrison is bringing his thought-provoking show, Birdsong of Tomorrow, to Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC).
Nathan says the show, performed from August 22 to 24 as part of the MerrigongX program, aims to give Wollongong audiences a new appreciation of birds.
“Birds have been around for such an incredibly long time and they pass down songs and have culture and memory.
“And I think maybe that's a way to think about change in the world, obviously everything has changed a lot in the last few years, and it’s going to keep changing.”
Nathan often collaborates with science researchers to write interactive shows that unpack ideas about the natural world.
“Chris Thorpe (UK theatre writer) says that a show needs to have a question that you can't answer without an audience being there,” Nathan says.
“A lot of this show is me trying to use birds as a lens to think about change and absence and loss, how we can feel connected to people, the country that we’re on.
“The show asks how do we adapt to change? And how do we remember what isn’t here anymore?”
The ideas behind Birdsong of Tomorrow hatched after Nathan’s experience with a friendly magpie, a “Covid lockdown miracle”.
“At that point, like, everything felt very small. But that magpie just made me think a lot about time and how change happens,” Nathan says.
“It took me a really long time to really understand what the show was about. I’m really interested in birds, I’m really interested in change and things like that, but that’s not a theatre show.”
Nathan is joined in the production by director Emma McManus, sound designer Tom Hogan and production designers Solomon Thomas, Clare Britton and Troy Reid.
“A team came together of some of my favourite people and very dear friends to work on the show and everything just felt like it started to fall into place in a really lovely way,” Nathan says.
“We're all really curious and eager to try things, and we really trust each other and have a good sense of what we’re adding to the show.
“It's a show that all of our lives have influenced in different ways. It's been a way for us to find connection, and work on something that feels pretty personal. There’s a lot of us in it.”
The show involves bird songs and visuals the team have gathered in a variety of ways while working together.
“We went to the Royal National Park for a day and took some cameras and some recording devices and got a lot of footage for the space,” Nathan says.
“It’s weird. You can make a video really, really out of focus, but all you need is the tiny little movement and you're like, ‘Oh, it’s a bird’.”
The team have worked with scientists, conservationists and ecologists who work with birds to put this show together.
“There's a lot of research that’s gone into this show. Part of the show is kind of like a nature documentary or a science lecture.
“There are a lot of people who do a lot of interesting work around birds and how we think about birds. We have so many endangered birds in Australia and there are people doing incredible things trying to protect that.
“For a show about change and absence, we’re interested in conservation and extinction, so we’ve been talking to experts about that a lot.”
Audiences can expect to gain a new perspective and appreciation for the nature that surrounds them in Wollongong.
“It’s a pretty special place – literally between the mountains and the sea. I grew up at the foot of the escarpment. I had parrots and all sorts of birds in my garden,” Nathan says.
“A lot of the show is talking about birds as these things that are around us every day and we might not pay attention to, but they’re witnessing our world in a really beautiful way.
“I'd love for people to see the show and then maybe the next day they're out and about and they see or hear a bird and it feels new.”
Birdsong of Tomorrow will be staged at IPAC on Thursday, August 22 to Saturday, August 24, starting at 7.30pm. It is a MerrigongX show, so there is no set ticket price. Audiences can reserve a spot online, then pay what they feel the performance is worth after seeing it. The show runs for 60 minutes without an interval and is suitable for ages 14 and up.
