It’s been a jam-packed year for Sheffield-based theatre group Black Bright Theatre. Co-founded in 2021 by Helen Denning and Madeleine Farnhill, the company is committed to telling female-led stories on stage, combining the nuances of lived experiences with weird, supernatural folk horror elements.
Their latest production, Birdwatching, explores intersectional queer and neurodivergent identities, receiving enormous praise at theatre festivals both at home and internationally. They’ll be taking a brand-new, revamped version of Birdwatching on tour across the North of England this autumn, visiting The University of Sheffield Drama Studio on 4 November.
The play’s three central characters – Poppy, Amelia and Lauren – were forged from writer Madeleine’s exploration of her own identity, reflecting on her experiences as a queer, late-diagnosed neurodivergent young woman. The character of Lauren, played by Ellen Trevaskiss, particularly draws on Madeleine’s feelings of social exclusion and the challenges she faced growing up.
“Lauren felt like a conduit for me to explore those feelings, and then Poppy and Amelia emerged as this very complex codependent friendship,” Madeleine explained. “Their upbringing and their experiences shape them, and just the fact that they’re young women in a very voyeuristic, judgmental world. They find life challenging, they find friendships challenging, and they don’t know who they are yet. That’s where we meet them all in the beginning of the play.”
Last summer, the group took Birdwatching to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where it was nominated for the Birds of Paradise ‘Exceptional Theatre’ award by Neurodiverse Review. In their first week they claimed a 9.50am slot – an unusual fit for a folk horror show – but still managed to bring in rave reviews from early-bird critics.
Helen, producer of Birdwatching, said: “It actually worked in our favour because we got a lot of reviewers in those first few days. By the time we moved to the other venue, there was already a bit of buzz around the show.”
Mimi Millmore, who plays Amelia, said: “We made so many connections with different people who were performing in horror. Going to the Fringe with something you genuinely feel so proud of is such a liberating thing, and you want to get out there as much as possible.”
Mimi is originally from Northern Ireland, and though her character Amelia was not intentionally written as Irish, her story deeply resonates with the experiences of many young women in her home country.
“Northern Ireland is the most dangerous state for a woman to live in in Europe,” she explained. “Amelia has so much paranoia because she was followed home. I’m always hearing things on the news from back in Belfast about women getting followed and attacked. This is a Sheffield story that travels up to Northumberland, but it reaches a wider community in so many ways.”
The show was later picked up for Chinese international theatre festival Chengdu-Chongqing, which saw Birdwatching reach a brand-new audience, far from home.
Helen said: “We weren’t sure how a Chinese audience was going to react. Quite a lot of people came up to us sharing that they were queer, or just indicating it. At the end of the shows we’d have Q&As, and we got a lot of people talking about their experiences as young women in China, saying they felt seen and represented.”
Beginning their new tour in Newcastle on 25 October, they’ll travel through Harrogate, Scarborough, Sheffield and Salford, before closing in Leeds on 11 November. Despite a tightly packed schedule of performances over the past 12 months, the team found time to flesh out the script ahead of the tour, incorporating moments of non-dialogue and expressive movement into the show.
“With the revamped script, I’m excited to see what it’s like on its feet,” said Mimi. “It’s going to get me in the real spirit for Halloween, so I can’t wait for that.”
Madeleine added: “The script feels a lot more grounded in itself. I’m excited to be working with Mimi and Ellen again. We just really trust each other, and we make really cool things.”
Birdwatching will be heading to The University of Sheffield Drama Studio on 4 November, with tickets available here. To find out more about Black Bright Theatre’s latest projects, check out their Instagram.
