performance
written Timothy X Atack | directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya
A comedy about modern people and how we deal with our unhappiness.
Tom is a Birthday Buzzard. His job is to dress up in a large anthropomorphic Buzzard outfit and turn up on your doorstep, on your birthday. He then tramps into your home and dissects your life in a scathing and frighteningly articulate way which would be highly amusing if it wasn’t YOU he was ripping apart. He’ll point out that you’ve wasted another year; that the clock is ticking. Then he’ll do a little dance and leave.
It’s a very popular service, paid for by family, lovers, colleagues, friends… and Tom is one of 12,000 professional Buzzards operating in the UK. Up until recently Tom has been considered one of the very best at what he does. But now he has a problem: Tom is in love, and it’s playing havoc with his professional cynicism and disenchantment.
Redeveloping BUZZARD
We originally made BUZZARD in 2009. It had some good jokes in it and some excellent dancing, but it had a clumsy dramatic framing and sense of polemic that kept getting in the way of the story. We want to rewrite and remake the show for touring with 2 Buzzards, better slapstick, better storytelling, a more interesting range of anger, and much more dancing.
We’ve planned out how to do it. We just need some backing. If you can help us, please get in touch.
“What starts out as ludicrous standup in feathers and claw feet carries with it a startling emotional trajectory, moving from savage humour to a haunting final scene.”
– The Guardian, on BUZZARD (2009).
You can check out the minimal but nevertheless dedicated original BUZZARD website here.
Credits:
BUZZARD was originally commissioned by Theatre Bristol and Bristol Old Vic and produced by Theatre Bristol.