RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next of his regular audio described theatre reviews for 2025.

This week Vidar was reviewing a new stage production of Sebastian Faulks’s ‘Bird Song’ at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with description by Professional Audio Describer Carolyn Smith.

About “Bird Song’

Sebastian Faulks’s epic story of love and loss returned to the stage marking the 30th anniversary of the international best-selling novel.

‘Bird Song’ tells the story of one man’s journey through an all-consuming love affair and into the horror of the First World War. In pre-war France, a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire that turns their world upside down. As the war breaks out over the idyll of his former life, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground. Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war Stephen clings to the memory of Isabelle as his world explodes around him.

A mesmerising story of love and courage. Set both before and during the Great War.

Starring award-winning actor Max Bowden, best known for the role of Ben Mitchell in Eastenders, and produced by the award-winning Original Theatre, who brought you the smash hit productions of The Mirror Crack’d by Agatha Christie, Murder in the Dark and The Habit of Art. Alastair Whatley has directed an excellent cast in a piece that will live on in the memories in the same way as Faulks’ novel that inspired it.

For more about access at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre including details of audio described performances do visit - https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/your-visit/accessibility/

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