THERE’S something about trees and since the publication of Merlin Sheldrake’s fascinating book Entangled Life, we know that there are forces underground, in constant communication with one another.

So, if you have been in a forest and been aware of an invisible presence, it’s not really surprising … and humans have had that feeling for centuries. How many folk tales and ballads refer to those “creatures” we fear and can’t explain?

That is a background to Madeleine Farnhill’s play Birdwatching, which delighted audiences at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and is now on a UK tour, stopping at Bath until Saturday 22nd March.

Three teenage girls, the insecure Lauren, the extrovert Amelia and the seemingly-organised Poppy, have taken to the woods for a camping weekend to mark Amelia’s departure for Australia. The plans have not been best laid – the bag of alcohol has been left along the way, and there is only one tent. The campsite is not chosen in advance, and the presence of goshawks means the place they end up is protected – NO CAMPING ALLOWED.

When the nervy Lauren (Ellen Trevaskiss) finds what she thinks is a suitable woodland glade, she also finds a bird’s nest, full of eggs, which she removes to behind a nearby hedge. Amelia (Mimi Millmore) goes off for a comfort break and returns, hysterically claiming to have been followed. Poppy (Madeleine Farnhill) is for leaving. Strange sounds are heard.

The night is all around them, and the stories that have fuelled their childhood and grown in their past lives are amplified into terror.

This is a spooky story, drawing in all those intangible dreads that haunt emotional teenagers, and sometimes continue into adulthood, reinforced by the insecurities that increasingly fill the lives of more or less everyone in 2025 … conspiracies, aliens, fake news and the rest. The music, starting with Shirley Collins, adds to the atmosphere of the piece, as the forebodings build and menace encircles the glade.

Birdwatching has its powerful moments, and the three young performers from Black Bright Theatre are totally convincing as the hapless campers.

GP-W

Photograph by Ai Narapol