Natural Habitat is a clever piece of ‘slice of life’ theatre. It reunites a family in small town New Zealand to celebrate 90 year-old Doris’s birthday, bringing all the awkwardness, past baggage, foot-in-mouth gaffs and moments of heartfelt joy that one might expect at such a gathering. 

Playing all the characters herself, Bridie Connell takes us on an insightful and humorous journey of family: Doris’s daughter and nervous party host, the matronly Janine; her cynical brother Phil; Uncle Ray from Oz and his estranged son Hamish; and Jesse the young star-struck cousin.  

The characters all have a depth that take them beyond just being clichéd and the humour moves from being both pointed to often endearing. 

One of the shows strengths and pleasures is watching Bridie deftly sketch a character with accents, visual quirks and mannerisms then paint this with a spectrum of colour through their stories and engaging dialogue. 

For me, the added bonus is that this is also a musical. Musical director /pianist Al Haire creates wonderfully stylistic compositions to accompany Bridie’s clever lyrics, drawing on the characters’ personalities and back stories, including fun motifs of the bird dance, early harpsichord to accompany the somewhat ‘UK affected’ Hamish and cinematic rippling soundscapes for an epic tale of being lost on the shores of Loch Lomond – alluding to the message of finding oneself and finding ones natural habitat.

The show title Natural Habitat intrigues me. How can a birthday party reunion be likened to a Natural Habitat? As the online Free Dictionary has it:
hab·i·tat  (hăb′ĭ-tăt′) n.
a. The natural environment in which a species or group of species lives:
b. A habitat can often be home to many different organisms.

For this show we have to look beyond just a physical location although the Fringe Bar stage does lend itself well to the production, decked out in a community hall party feel with the audience being invited to join in with family toasts as the distant cousins. 

In this show the habitat is about memories, journeys and experiences. The family habitat is home to many different personalities, often in this case not the most comfortable or easy-going. It is here they come together in a familiar place they either call home, or once called home, with the need to belong, connect and be seen for who they are. 

Bridie Connell herself has returned to her habitat of New Zealand after a long period away and given the performance we see tonight, she is definitely in her Natural Habitat both in the writing of this play and the performing of it.  

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