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The Birds

A contemporary interpretation of Daphne du Maurier’s post-war story
Malthouse Theatre
by
ABR Arts 26 May 2025

The Birds

A contemporary interpretation of Daphne du Maurier’s post-war story
Malthouse Theatre
by
ABR Arts 26 May 2025
‘The Birds: A contemporary interpretation of Daphne du Maurier’s post-war story’ by Diane Stubbings
Paula Arundell as Tess (photograph by Pia Johnson)

Readers who encountered Daphne du Maurier’s ‘The Birds’ when it was first published in 1952 (as part of her short story collection The Apple Tree) would have heard in the story an echo of the German assault on Britain during World War II, images of rural England under attack from aggressive birds an apt metaphor for everything the country had recently endured. Yet what lifted the story from being merely an allegory of a past war to a tale that resonated – and continues to resonate – beyond its time is the cyclic nature of the birds’ incursions.

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