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8 July 2024

Exposed Magazine

It’s been nearly three years since Exposed last checked in with Helen Denning and Madeleine Farnhill, the co-founders of Black Bright Theatre. Established in August 2021, the Sheffield-based theatre group creates distinctly dark, female-led stories for the stage. Their inaugural production, The Hunger, a post-apocalyptic horror set in the Yorkshire Dales, toured venues across northern England before making its way to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, where it received a number of glowing reviews. 

The seeds of the company itself were sown during the doldrums of lockdown in March 2020. Madeleine was writing a script for The Hunger and called upon close friend and fellow Sheffield University Theatre Company alum Helen to produce the play. “We brought together a load of artists who were just feeling creatively starved and wanted something to do,” says Helen. “The intention was to do the play once things opened up.”

Black Bright Theatre

The team developed Birdwatching with help from the Bank Cohort, Sheffield Theatres’ talent development scheme.

The Hunger premiered with a three-night run at the now-closed DINA venue in Sheffield. The positive response encouraged the duo to take the show on a wider tour, resulting in the formation of Black Bright Theatre, a name inspired by a Yorkshire phrase occasionally used by Maddie’s mum. “My mum used it to describe our dog after a muddy walk – ‘Black Bright’, meaning very dirty,” Maddie explains. As well as adding a personal touch and some regional flavour, the name nicely encapsulates the company’s ethos of exploring dark themes with a light touch of hope.

Following a tour taking in six cities across the North, they set their sights higher. “After the tour, Maddie worked at Edinburgh Fringe for a summer and decided we should take The Hunger there,” recalls Helen. “But it meant a lot of changes had to be made; Maddie had to completely redraft the script to make it an hour shorter.”

“I actually found it was a helpful exercise in distilling the play to what we really wanted to stay,” reflects Maddie. “I think it allowed us to play on the mystery element more; you’re kind of showing the potential for something, and people who saw the show wanted to know more about this world.”

Black Bright Theatre

Helen Denning and Maddie Farnhill, co-founders of Black Bright Theatre.

Building on the success of The Hunger, Helen and Maddie applied to The Bank Cohort talent development scheme. This opportunity has enabled them to develop their next play, Birdwatching, which follows three young female friends on a camping trip in a secluded Northumberland forest.

Their latest project, which marks the company’s return to the Edinburgh Fringe in August after a successful application to the Keep it Fringe Fund, continues their focus on female-driven narratives, weaving together themes of voyeurism, the female experience and the supernatural.

Inspired by folk-horror cinema, Maddie describes the play as a way to “explore three girls carrying their own unique traumas of being a young woman in a very watchful world, a world where they are policed and judged. That feeling of being watched doesn’t go away; it explores the voyeurism in the female experience through a supernatural folk horror story.”

Birdwatching heads to the Edinburgh Fringe next month.

In line with Black Bright’s ethos to promote under-represented groups in theatre, the play also explores intersectional identities. Maddie explains that her own experiences in navigating socially constructed groupings helped to inform parts of the writing process. “I’m late diagnosed neurodivergent,” she says. “I’m also queer. That all came about kind of later in life and looking back, I feel like there was a lot of masking, a lot of wanting to conform and a fear of being found out. I wanted to inject aspects of that into the play.”

Helen explains that they are keen to use their work to raise awareness and funds for causes aligned with their plays’ themes. As such, Birdwatching’s official charity partner will be Strut Safe, a volunteer-led phone line that provides a friendly voice and reassurance to anyone walking home alone in the evenings. “It works with our general vision of outlining the issues predominantly faced by female-presenting people, and also situations that can be exacerbated if you are marginalised in other ways.”

That feeling of being watched doesn’t go away; it explores the voyeurism in the female experience through a supernatural folk horror story.

Moving forward, the company aims to build further connections with queer, neurodivergent, female-led organisations, especially in Sheffield. “We’ll be performing a live reading of the Birdwatching script at the intersectional feminist and queer bookshop Juno Books in July,” adds Helen. “We are especially keen to share the text with people who may have a stake in the topics explored.”

We round off the interview by discussing the importance of independent theatre groups in social issues, particularly when the arts sector has taken on significant ideological damage from the Tories. “We learn about different perspectives and issues through stories, and this inspires real change. As times move on, new stories and voices need to be heard,” states Helen. “With widespread funding cuts to the arts across the country, independent theatre companies need support from audiences to keep making work. Companies like ours are often emerging voices without money or connections behind them.”

“Like many independent companies, we have a donations page on our website which the general public can contribute to if they wish to support our work. But ultimately, independent artists need audiences. If you want to support the next generation of theatre, then go and see some independent work!”

Find the latest news including Birdwatching’s Edinburgh Fringe dates at blackbrighttheatre.co.uk.

@blackbrighttheatre