Hatched: A New Audio Musical Review
Written by Penny for Theatre and Tonic.
Written by Lydia Shaw and Edward Court, Hatched is a new audio musical which aims to offer a full scale West End musical in radio drama format. Set on a mythical island populated by birds, it tells the story of “lady bird” Fallon and her friends and family, in a tale of female empowerment. It is full of colourful characters navigating mountains, lakes and forests. The twist, of course, is that as this is an audio musical, it is up to the listener’s imagination to visualise these vibrant landscapes and personalities.
Scenes are linked by a narrator, voiced by Sophia Lewis, in a style a little reminiscent of Dr Seuss with simple rhymes and storytelling. Lewis sets the scene and introduces the characters. Relying purely on audio, it is a little hard to work out who is who straight away, but as the story progresses, the actors’ voices for the most part create distinctive characters. A cheesy radio DJ, voiced by Matt Slack, offers another male narrator’s voice, commenting on events as they unfold. It doesn’t really add anything to the story, but does reinforce the idea that all of the authority figures are male.
The story centres around the island’s lady birds who, in this patriarchal society, have one taste of freedom from their domestic drudgery each year, when they climb a mountain to lay their eggs. They climb this mountain because, in this world, lady birds are not allowed to fly. That’s a privilege reserved for the “brothers”, led by the sinister Lord Zandajay (Thomas Hewitt) and policed by his Watchbirds. As the lady birds depart for their annual pilgrimage, their chicks are left in the care of an older Motherbird (Norma Atallah). As the characters were established within the story, I would have liked to have heard an adult male character in the bird community question the authority figures rather than blindly accepting the inequality, as a strong male voice would have offered a positive character for any boys listening to get behind.
Main character Fallon (played by co-writer Shaw) leads the fight back for the lady birds, with a clear feminist message. The lyrics are not exactly subtle, “Talk to the wing as we ain’t listening” but they should resonate with the younger listeners that I assume the show targets. The dialogue also has nods to modern feminism with lines like “nevertheless they persisted” sitting naturally in the narration rather than feeling forced or preachy.
Generally the ensemble songs don’t do much to move the plot along, but a few of the solo numbers are more impactful, with styles ranging from jazz to taking inspiration from Gilbert and Sullivan and a strong “girl power” awakening for the vain Marnie, a stand out personality thanks to Gracie Lai’s strong performance. I also enjoyed Sarah Barron’s portrayal of Penny, a character older listeners might visualise as a cross between Miss Jean Brodie and a less evil Aunt Lydia from The Handmaid’s Tale.
Hatched doesn’t completely convince as a “full-scale West End musical” but works nicely as a radio play with music. It would be a useful accompaniment to teaching children about feminism and equality and it has scope to perhaps inspire younger listeners to draw their ideas of the birds and their beautiful island and older children to discuss the issues that are clearly and intelligently raised in the piece. It would work well as an animation but in its current format allows for listeners to immerse themselves in the story and get creative to build their own idea of Fallon’s world.
Hatched is available in nine instalments, each running at around 20 minutes.
☆ ☆ ☆
