Birdie: A Multimedia Journey by Agrupación Señor Serrano
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On January 30th and 31st, 2026, Agrupación Señor Serrano presented its iconic production, Birdie, at Oz Arts Nashville. Founded in Barcelona in 2006 by Àlex Serrano, the company has spent a decade performing this piece, which originally premiered in July 2016 at the GREC Festival de Barcelona and continues to resonate deeply with the human experiences of every generation. As the name suggests, Birdie uses bird migration as its starting point. However, the play goes far beyond the metaphor; it tackles themes as complex and personal as the ravages of war, forced displacement, and environmental collapse. It does so without preaching or imposing political agendas, achieving a genuine connection with the audience through the honesty of its message.
Two Worlds in Contrast
The company describes the essence of the work as follows:
“Two worlds in contrast. The story is built on two mirages. On one hand, the rawness of war, droughts, labor exploitation, and forced deportations. On the other, a seemingly stable world of stocked supermarkets, individual freedoms, and prosperity. But this supposed certainty is contradictory. Between these two worlds, thousands of birds draw impossible shapes in the sky in an unceasing movement. Nothing in the cosmos is static; stillness is a chimera, and only transformation exists. If it is impossible to stop an electron, what is the point of putting up fences for flocks of birds?”
A Hybrid and Immersive Experience
What makes Birdie truly captivating is its hybrid staging. It combines traditional theater with live performance, visual arts, immersive sound design, and live cinematography. By breaking the “fourth wall,” the audience witnesses the “behind the scenes” simultaneously with the action, becoming direct witnesses to the creative effort. With scale models, 2,000 miniature animals, and a reimagining of Hitchcock’s The Birds, three performers navigate this tangled world with humor, a critical sense, and a deep human commitment.
From Confusion to Wonder
Upon entering the theater in Nashville, the first sensation was one of total immersion: the sound of birds filled the room through the speakers, preparing us for a story that already felt present in the air. However, looking at the stage, I confess I felt confused. The space and equipment seemed limited, almost modest for the magnitude of the promised themes. To the left, two tables held models and objects whose details were impossible to perceive from my seat. On one of them, a simple blue sheet waited to be transformed into a green screen capable of merging magazine clippings with real-time filmography. In the center of the floor, the main model stood out: a golf course with its holes and contours, covered by an endless row of miniature animals whose placement seemed a mystery. On the far right, a long table with computers and a girl in a red hoodie with her back to the audience completed this technological tableau. It was a raw staging, where the “behind the scenes” was fully exposed before the start.
That initial confusion soon turned into awe. What from my seat appeared to be a collection of small, disconnected objects was transformed before my eyes into a cinematic universe. As the center screen lit up, the magic happened: the performers’ cameras captured those miniatures and projected them on an epic scale. I then understood that this “limitation” of space was, in reality, a powerful narrative tool. Seeing the physical process—hands moving clippings and animals over the golf course—while watching the final result on the screen, eliminated any barrier between the creator and the audience. It was a reminder that grand sets are not necessary to create immense worlds; all it takes is a bold vision and a camera that knows where to look.
Beyond the Technology
Beyond the technological display, the work resonates on a much more intimate level by confronting us with our own privilege. Birdie presents migration as a problem that, despite its magnitude and the pain it causes entire families, is often ignored by those of us who do not feel directly affected. The staging masterfully captures that human capacity to “turn the page” in the face of tragedy; we see it literally at the beginning, as we leaf through a newspaper where a heartbreaking news story about displaced people coexists, with total coldness, alongside celebrity sections and banal topics.
This disconnection is reinforced by the symbolism of the bird, a leitmotif that constantly shifts in meaning. On one hand, we see the migrant’s harrowing journey, but on the other, the bird appears as a cruel contrast to the land animals in the model. While the creatures on the ground struggle desperately to escape calamities, the bird can simply fly over the fences, avoiding the mud and easily finding a place to call home. For me, the message is not a moral lesson, but an uncomfortable question about our own stillness: while the world is in a forced and painful movement, we watch from the comfort of our seats—or from our “stable world” of full supermarkets—with the power to choose when to stop looking.
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My name is Gimena Cante, and I am 23 years old. I’m from Yucatán, Mexico, which you might not be familiar with, but it is home to Chichen Itza, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. I have lived in Tennessee for six years and have a passion for languages and cultures. My biggest goal in life is to travel around the world, not only to discover countries I’ve never heard of but also to explore my own country entirely.
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