The Last Cuckoo
The Last Cuckoo
“I never felt passionate about birds. And then….I drove down here last night and a barn owl flew across my windscreen like a sift of wind through oatmeal, like a flaw in the glass. And I stopped and turned off the engine and listened. Nothing. Just the car ticking with heat. And then I heard them. The owls. Calling. The definition of night. They were there. It was good.”
On his return from his uncle’s funeral, Duncan Campbell begins the slow, sad process of working through his effects. As he does so, he finds within the ghostly confines of this remote coastal cottage the way into a world he never knew existed – the entrance into a life he never dared hope for. But this awareness brings with it costly choices and, most daunting of all, the possibility of real change.
The Last Cuckoo is an enchanting and hilarious play whose central character, Harry Baskerville, is a genuine eccentric – an irascible, unpredictable and engaging ornithologist with fantastic ruminations on hatching swallows, stained glass, fish pie, crocheted toilet roll covers and Rupert Bear. He gives voice to an eloquent, moving and comical celebration of the natural world – but especially that of the birds.
“A magical encounter – the writing is wonderful.” Oliver Parker, Film Director.
Presented by Sea View Productions
Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes; no interval.
Suitable for all