In Aristophanes’ The Birds, a city in the clouds is the background to an ambivalent satire on utopianism and realpolitik. Cloudcuckooland, a musical for children, re-imagines Aristophanes’ comedy as a boisterously upbeat fable about climate change, inter-species co-operation and the possibility of building better worlds.
City-girl Swifty is depressed and apathetic, until a giant talking curlew takes refuge in her dustbin, en route to an international parliament of fowls determined to take action to halt humankind’s destruction of the planet. Stephen Sharkey’s bright and brisk text is crammed with irreverent references to contemporary pop and political culture, and the songs have a satiric edge to their lyrics that bites surprisingly sharply. Cloudcuckooland isn’t afraid to present a very young audience with difficult questions, and ethical conundrums without obvious answers. But there are also a lot of uncomplicated laughs as Aristophanic obscenity is rephrased as a series of winningly naughty riffs concerning the avians’ secret weapon: bird poo.
The cast of six work themselves into a lather of quick-changes, multi-skilled musicianship and frantic physical comedy. There are a pair of tumbling twitchers, stilt-walking and sight-gags, an exhilaratingly perilous chase scene and some delicately-judged bouts of onstage defecation. There’s also some wonderfully committed character work on display: I especially loved Dafydd Huw James’ sinister raven, and Leon Scott’s poignant portrait of Dave, a lame Geordie duck. Georgina Phillip as Swifty manages to combine youthful optimism with a creepingly unsettling enjoyment of her new political power. And the whole cast works very hard to draw their audience into the practical and ethical challenges of establishing a city in the clouds.
The hour-long production is batty and buoyant and brimming with ideas and energy. Sometimes the words get lost in the cacophony, and the bird-and-toddler-built city is a bit shaky, but at its mind-bending best Cloudcuckooland is a thought-provoking dollop of big-hearted total-theatre anarchy.
Cloudcuckooland is at the Pleasance, Islington until 2 November: www.pleasance.co.uk or www.onassis.ox.ac.uk.
Words: Stephen Sharkey. Music: Alex Silverman. Director: Helen Eastman
Photo: Dafydd Huw James in Cloudcuckooland.
Photographer: Geraint Lewis.
What an astonishing review. You do get to see some of the most unobvious shows around town. Based on your description here, I can hardly believe the piece is geared towards children. I’d be interested to know what the atmosphere was like during and after the show. How did this ‘young audience’ engage with the material? What was the intended age range of the piece and shouldn’t it be ‘transferred’ to the Unicorn?
There was a really strong family vibe at the show I attended, with lots of groups with kids of different ages, and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were some lovely bits of audience interaction (like when you have to help build the city by blowing up balloons), and there was lots of enouragement for children to get involved in answering actors’ questions, and giving them ideas about how they should tackle the problems that arise in the course of the show. The actors were also very obviously skilled in guiding the kids’ responses: “Disneyland? That’s a great name for a city! Does anyone have any other ideas?” etc.
I think the show is billed for ages 6+, though there’s also a companion piece aimed at ages 3-6: http://www.pleasance.co.uk/islington/picknmyths
And, to the last question - yes.