Cuckoo
Cuckoo was a poker-faced comedy of manners in which the performers strove to establish domestic equilibrium amongst themselves and large quantities of junk shop furniture. The second hand furniture suggested that we inherit a world already filled with objects and beliefs and governed by rules and rituals and that rather than inventing something new, creativity involves improvising with existing ideas and materials. Here the inertia and expectations of furniture were removed - it was no longer in the way or filling empty rooms or fulfilling its specific purpose. Performers were nailed to it, it was sawn into pieces, balanced, wedged and dragged as the performers attempted to elevate themselves in these situations.
with Pascal Brannan, Bruce Gilchrist, Julian Maynard Smith, Sarah Rapson, Alison Urquhart
Double bass: Phillip Savage, Andrew Davis, Jean Paul Evers, Sjeng Schupt
“This is anti-theatre. People are nailed to chairs. Men, wardrobe and floor, all hovering and counter-balance against each other is surrealism of the first order.”
Kenneth Rea, The Guardian
“Cuckoo is a masterpiece.”
London International Mime Festival
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(1) The Place Theatre, London 1987
(2) Riverside Studios, London; Mickery Theater Workshop, Amsterdam; Zurich Festival; Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona, KIT Copenhagen, Odense, Arhus; Sommerfest, Hamburg, Keep It Simple Festival, Basel; Midland Group, Nottingham; Northampton University; De Montfort University, Leicester; Arnolfini, Bristol; Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster
An Artsadmin production, 1987
