All About The Birds is a collective attempt to make a solo-show about freedom. 

Tonight Maddie is Zed and this show is all about the birds.  

When they were 18 the birds made Zed’s world bigger. They followed them from their window, down the street and into new spaces. Through the birds they built relationships. Their world grew wider, stranger and more alive.

Now, 10 years later,  Zed is an artist responding to a callout for new work exploring ‘liberation’. The route to freedom. They set out, alone, to film the birds setting off on their journey south.

Then the birds start talking back. 

All About The Birds asks: what  are the limits of freedom when we pursue it alone? Can we explore freedom in solo work? Is there such a thing as a solo show? Do birds speak with I or We? This performance needs more voices, it needs an audience. 

The show blends projected film, live captured image and poetic forms. But it can’t happen alone. All About The Birds is a call for connection. If our freedom comes through connections with others, connections which in this modern world have to span continents, what does that mean for who we are and how we tell stories?

All About The Birds is a devised work by Maddie Wakeling, Nassim Al-Banna, Fernando Solis and Georgina Whelehan. It’s currently in development and has been supported by the Karen Christopher Studios Residency Programme Spring 2025.