Cuckoo
Photo by Rob Harris
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
"Station House Opera's Cuckoo is an elegant and very witty exploration of the way we relate to each other and to our domestic environment. The work is cleverly pitched between realism and surrealism and the group's unique sense of the intrinsic poetry of objects gives their work a sculptural quality, while their wit keeps them from obtuse elitism."
Time Out
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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 1987
