Old Bird Theatre was set up to tell ambitious stories about Bradford and beyond and their first show is Otherhood, written by Emma Adams and directed by Deborah Pakkar-Hull.

It’s the story of a grieving widow and a queer millennial who discover the power of finding family in unexpected places. This poignant and funny new play explores the heartaches and joys of aging child-free.

The show is in the round, and in an intimate space – depending on where the performance is, there are only between 25 and 60 seats. It’s an immersive theatre experience and soundscape mixed with real life stories. Otherhood switches between the here and now and an audio storytelling realm where we travel in time to an imagined, fantastical Bradford.

Behind the circle of chairs is a circle of speakers, 9 altogether that create immersive sound that includes testimony from contributors. Also playing will be original music and a choir of Bradford voices who bring hope to a story that will touch on all emotions.

There’s no traditional set, but some important pieces to mention – there’s a piano stool, one of those old-fashioned ones with a velvet topped lid you can lift to store sheet music in. It has handles either side for easy movement. It also becomes an oven. When we arrive, the floor is littered with coffee cups and some pieces of paper next to the piano stool.

A Henry vacuum cleaner is brought in along with other cleaning products. The vacuum cleaner is used as a makeshift seat.

But the main thing to share with you is an old fashioned suitcase, so one without wheels! It’s filled with highly decorated envelopes, each with different labels on. Some are quite big – A4 size, and others are smaller.

As well as the envelopes, there’s a blanket, that becomes a baby, and a fur headband and orange scarf, and they’re worn to represent an orangutan.

We’ll meet several characters – 2 are live, and human, and with us in the space, and the others are recorded – 1 human and several animals – the key one is an orangutan called Kopperburg.

The 2 live humans are here to introduce themselves..

The other human is Ola, Peg’s wife. She died, but made some recordings for Peg and it’s those we’ll hear. She made Peg a photograph album and there are caught glimpses of Ola in there – she’s a black woman with long hair and a big smile.

Teagan becomes Kopperberg the orangutan, and Peg becomes all the other animals.

And that’s it – a story about aging child-free that might bring out lots of emotion, but a reminder that children or no children, we all matter, and all leave a meaningful mark.