birdsong of tomorrow
I owe birdwatching to grounding me in nature, environmental activism, and for allowing me to be present when the world feels like it's slipping away quickly. It has provided community in the form of new friends, knowledge about the world around me. It brings the comforting understanding nod and curiosity of bumping into someone with a camera or binoculars around their neck, leaving a trail, eager to exchange with sometimes just a look or sometimes a chinwag on what we each spotted.
I had the gift of being able to combine a lot of this when a new friend I met via birdwatching, Nathan, invited me to his launch of his heartfelt play, Birdsong of Tomorrow. I wanted to write a few words on why I adored it so much as a way to immortalise the feelings that it stirred up: important, meaningful, impactful, solid. Something you know for sure is a real, certain, POWERFUL feeling.
Birdsong of Tomorrow is playing at the Old Fitz, Eora/Sydney and has extended its season due to high demand! Go check it out before it's gone: https://griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/birdsong-of-tomorrow/
Director: Emma McManus
Composer: Tom Hogan
By: Nathan Harrison
There's a distracting hum in this world. It dissipates as I enter the theatre. This is because I see a homely arrangement made of things from a time where this hum was not as loud: a guitar and some pedals, a slide projector, an overhead projector, birdsong records, old bird ID books, a small, old TV with a photo of some bushland out of focus, and a reel to reel tape player.
I want to attempt to summarise what the play felt like. It felt like an antidote to the mortal coil. To pathos. An antidote to all that is real in life. And with these real feelings comes our own journey of suffering. Through the poetry of seeing birds as carriers of the same troubles we endure, and the way they have persevered, it gives me strength. I feel like I am more ready to face these challenges head on and not feel scared of experience and pain.
I will write down some of my thoughts and things I took away below, realisations, and moments to me that were poignant and beautiful.
moments of pathos
As I grow older, the expectation of grief and loss is front of mind and it's more terrifying than ever to figure out how to prepare for it. The play offers a different perspective that makes me feel more prepared. Through the history of how birds have shaped evolution, history, culture, and their current stake in the world we share with them offers hope. Using their strength to fill mine.
Nathan talks about losing someone very close to him. The audience goes through the journey of his grief with him as the resulting sense of emptiness is explored. What would a representative bird be for this person who is lost? This journey felt so healing to me. While there is still pain there, we explore it together via this in this setting of an admiration and history of birds, birdsong, punk music, science, and just the comforting atmosphere of the set. The result is a sense of journey and closeness. A set of metaphors and comparisons to the natural world that bring comfort. When the time for grief comes, I will have companions in these memories to help guide me through it.
moments of catharsis
There's a bit in the play where we learn that birdsong maybe, perhaps influenced the earliest humans to sing along and create music. As someone who revolves around the beauty of music and it's meaning to me, I feel so moved and comforted by this thought. Can you imagine what the world would be like if birds did not give us music? I like to think all we'd ever do is live our lives as hunter-gatherers without birdsong, and hence music, and to be where we are now, the infinity of music was needed to fuel our consciousness.
Birdlife, and their arduous yet dedicated journeys to the present Anthropocene, offer hope and lessons in life.
"There are two things I fear: change and permanence."
Life itself is a constant flux of permanence and change. We are merely blips. Exploring this in Birdsong of Tomorrow has made me feel this smallness. This smallness though, is healing, as all we really have is this life with all its ups and down, love and loss. It's our role to play our part with the birds as symbols who are there to remind us of: song, perseverance, flights as journeys, and joy for being able to experience them as humans.
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