Part of the House of Oz series at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival is Birds, a show that is set to make its stars Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford (known collectively as Sons of Susan) fan favourites of the festival.
Less a traditional play and more of an absurdist character study, the 50-minute show takes us to an otherwise abandoned beach, where a pair of wealthy and out-of-touch Australian socialites – Shayna and Beverley – meet against a backdrop of a climate disaster, and what I believe they said was a tsunami warning. Even as one of their own homes disappears in the distance, they are truly oblivious and unmoved by it all, wrapped up in their own eccentricities.
Completely sold out the day I attended, Birds takes place in a venue at the Fringe called “The Box”, which is literally a shipping container. And given the weather that this part of the world has been experiencing this summer, it makes the whole thing a self-described “immersive heat piece” for the audience. Which is not at all inaccurate. I left a bit of a sweaty mess. And it does help to accentuate the whole climate change theme, intentional or otherwise.
Their stage set up is simple – a yellow background (“The Beach”), two chairs, some fake cigarettes, and a pet falcon hanging above them with fishing wire. Another character – one of Beverley’s twelve children – swims off in the distance but is never seen.
The characters are loud and obnoxiously Australian, with Kath and Kim being an easy reference point for those in Australia and abroad. Especially given that show’s international appeal through its presence on streaming services like Netflix. That alone is going to keep bringing people to the show. And rightly so. They are terrifically weird characters well-crafted for a Fringe audience, designed to remind us all that the world is on fire and too many of us have our heads in the sand (which you can take quite literally in this case).
They’re characters that feel like they’re straight out another universe, whose very absurdity is what brings people to watch the show. There’s some clever body horror makeup employed as they slowly burn as the performance progresses, and loud, exaggerated performances that rarely let up.
By its end, it felt it was struggling to know what more to do with the characters. I would love to see what they can do with a meatier plot. Or maybe this is as far as the concept can go. That part is hard to say. Fringe shows be like that sometimes.
Birds is going to give festival goers the exact sort of experience they are looking for. The crowd I saw it with was in stitches from start to finish. It’s hilarious in moments, and wonderfully ridiculous in others. Maybe you too, darling, would sit on the beach as the world falls apart? You’ll have to see it for yourself to make up your own mind.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Birds continues at The Box during the Edinburgh Fringe until 30th August. For tickets and more details head HERE.
The author attended the production as a guest on 11th August 2026. Photos provided.
