Dublin's National Concert Hall to play live score for Hitchcock's The Birds

This November, Alfred Hitchcock's timeless thriller The Birds will turn 60. In celebration, the National Concert Hall has planned a special screening with a live score.

The screening will take place Tuesday 7th November 2023 at 8pm, and tickets go on sale this Friday 11th August at 10am.

Widely accepted as one of Hitchcock's finest films, the NCH will accompany a special screening with a live score written and performed live by Matthew Nolan, in collaboration with Seán Mac Erlaine, Sharon Phelan and Eivind Aarset.

The NCH has held a series of these special screenings with live scores in the past. In 2016, the same group of musicians brought the 1930s classic Dracula to the NCH, and before that Nolan performed live scores for both Metropolis and The Night of the Living Dead. Nolan has also created live scores outside of the NCH for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Solaris.

The Birds is a horror-thriller loosely based on a 1952 novel of the same name and sees Hitchcock at the peak of his reputation. It centers around a wealthy San Francisco socialite as she follows a suitor to a small Northern California town. However, the story takes a bizzare turn when, without warning, birds begin to attack people.

You can find tickets when they go on sale this Friday 11th August at 10am here. They will be €27 each, with a 10% discount for Friends of NCH and groups of 10 or more.

You can watch the trailer for the film below.