Performance

The Last Cuckoo

4 Sep 2020

Regular hours

Friday
10:00 – 17:00

Cost of entry

£12

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Art & Soul

St Neots
England, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • St Neots Market Place
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A one-man show by Nigel Forde with Andrew Harrison.

“The Last Cuckoo” is an enchanting and hilarious play whose central character, Harry Baskerville, is a genuine eccentric who gives voice to an eloquent, moving and comical celebration of the natural world - but especially that of the birds.

About

“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; but 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.

“A magical encounter – the writing is wonderful.”

Oliver Parker, Film Director.

“It’s a great show! An enchanting evening.”

Sally Magnusson. Broadcaster. 

“Ah! No-one understood it was what I wanted!”, muses Harry as he settles back into the ease and comfort of his bachelor kingdom. “A book of verse, a glass of wine, a pair of binoculars, enough to live on and no homework! Above all, the chance to stop, look and listen. Listen to a blackbird in a hawthorn hedge as dusk laps in like a high tide and the moon crawls up the sky like a cheese in a nursery rhyme… open your eyes, let the world in.”

“Beautifully comic. I cried with laughter.”

Simon Mayo. Broadcaster.

But this play is no sentimental, ecological apologia, for after Harry’s death it is left to his nephew to reflect on not just a life but a whole way of being that is fast disappearing. Beneath the glittering surface of the natural world that has such an allure is a disturbing pulse that grows ever more insistent.

“The audience were unanimous in their praise. This is a wonderfully intimate piece…will have wide appeal to anyone who cares about the countryside, birds and the future.”

David Popple, Director Stamford Arts Centre.

The Harborough Mail –

"… What a wonderful evening Andrew Harrison gave to a completely full theatre with his magnificent performance of "The Last Cuckoo" …. It was a one-man show but Harrison's ability filled the stage with a myriad of characters….Such happiness was an emotion the audience felt for when the final moment came… there wasn't a murmur for fifteen seconds… the roof almost lifted off the theatre, such was the applause."

The Jersey Evening Post –

"Theatre can do many things including entertaining and instructing but when it is at its best it can do both at the same time. Such a rare feat - and treat - can be seen in an unusual one man show entitled "The Last Cuckoo"…The show is at times wistful and nostalgic and at others inspiringly forthright but it is also very funny…Something rather unusual then for people who like theatre with a difference and the natural environment."

What to expect? Toggle

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