By Finegan Kruckemeyer

About

A boy wakes to finds he has grown. He recognises the stranger in the mirror, but his parents, his town do not. Outside his childhood bedroom he finds a bird that cannot fly and together the strangers embark on adventures.

This is the story about their journey to the big city, what they find there, what they join in and what they make themselves. A story about flying from nests, birdsong and growing up.

From Slingsby, the award winning company that created the internationally acclaimed hit The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy, comes this enveloping world of pearly prose, lustrous live music, melancholia and sunshine.

Meet the creative team

Andy Packer

CEO & Artistic Director

Andy is an award-winning director of theatre, music theatre and opera. He has also worked as creative producer of multidisciplinary arts programs, creative director of large-scale events and festival director. In 2007 Andy co-founded Adelaide based theatre company Slingsby. The company is now well-established as a leading international immersive theatre company, having toured to more than 170 venues, with over 1,000 performances across 13 countries and counting.

Andy is renowned for creating original live performance moments that are emotionally powerful and visually bold. His work across theatre for young audiences, opera, cabaret, music theatre and symphonic concerts has pushed him to develop a distinctive theatrical aesthetic that is at once personal and epic.

Andy has directed productions and events for Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Opera South Australia, State Theatre Company South Australia, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Chamber Singers, Australian String Quartet, Windmill Theatre, Restless Dance, Tutti Ensemble, Rundle Mall Management Authority and the International Astronautical Federation. In 2019 Andy was Show Director for the World of Wearable Art Awards Show in Wellington, New Zealand.

Finegan Kruckemeyer

Playwright

Finegan has had 86 commissioned plays performed on five continents and translated into eight languages. He has received 35 awards (at least one each year since 2002) including the 2017 Mickey Miners Lifetime Achievement Award (for services to international theatre for young audiences), the 2015 David Williamson Award for Excellence in Australian Playwrighting, and an inaugural Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship.

To date, Finegan’s plays have had seasons in: 200 international festivals; all Australian states/territories; eight US national tours; five UK national tours; and at the Sydney Opera House (six works), Scotland’s Imaginate Festival (three works), New York’s Lincoln Center for the Arts (three works), DC’s Kennedy Center for the Arts (three works), Ireland’s Abbey Theatre (two works) and Shanghai’s Malan Flower Theatre (two works).

Wendy Todd

Designer

Wendy’s Set & Costume Design credits include Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Tim Overton/Wickedly Good Productions), The Thing That Matters and Touch & Go (Sally Chance Dance), Seashore (Sally Chance Dance/Dream Big), Vaudeville (Brink Productions/Rory Walker), Land + Sea (Brink Productions), Supernature and North/South (Australian Dance Theatre), The Lighthouse (Patch Theatre), Picaresque (Robyn Archer, Adelaide Festival), Long Tan (Brink Productions/State Theatre Company South Australia), BabyteethBlastedand Pornography (State Theatre Company South Australia). Wendy also designed the Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s opening, closing and family galas from 2016 to 2018 (Adelaide Festival Centre).

Wendy’s Set, Costume & Lighting Design credits include Symphonie de la Bicyclette (Brink Productions/Hew Parham) and The World Is Looking For You (Control Party).

For Adelaide Festival Centre, Wendy’s event designs include Adelaide Cabaret Festival (Co-Designer 2015-2019) and Adelaide Guitar Festival (2016). Late-night club designs for Adelaide Festival include Blinc Bar(Designer, 2015), Lola’s Pergola (Design Assistant/Coordinator 2014), Barrio (Design Coordinator 2012-2013), Persian Garden (Assistant Designer 2006, 2008). Wendy also designed the biannual Bowerbird Design Markets from 2013 to 2017.

For Slingsby, Wendy’s work has included The Young KingMan Covets Bird, and The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy (Set & Costume Design), The Boy Who Talked to Dogs and Emil & The Detectives (Set Design) and, most recently, A Concise Compendium of Wonder – The Tree of Light (Environment Design).

Geoff Cobham

Artstic Associate - Lighting

Geoff has worked as an Event Producer, Production Manager, Lighting Designer, Set Designer, Public Artist and Venue Designer. His work has ranged from many smaller innovative productions to large scale theatre/dance productions, festivals, art exhibitions, events, museums and venue creation.

Geoff has worked as an Event Producer, Production Manager, Lighting Designer, Set Designer, Public Artist and Venue Designer. His work has ranged from many smaller innovative productions at the Performance Space, Queens Theatre, Belvoir, Red Shed, non-theatre venues (tents, warehouses and more) to large-scale theatre/dance productions, festivals, art exhibitions, events, museums and venue creation. His love of light and dance has led him to work with many of Australia’s top choreographers and allowed him to explore the endless combinations of colour, angle, intensity, and movement, of light. With his company Bluebottle he has designed many lighting installations and lit public artworks, buildings, landscapes and freeways. Geoff received a Churchill Fellowship in 2010 to study Outdoor Theatre in Europe. This led to the creation of Barrio, inspired by the “participatory theatre” movement currently sweeping Europe. Finding innovative ways to involve community and other industry in Events was at the heart of Barrio. Its success was in the unique way it gave its audience ownership of the event. Geoff has been working on Festivals since the late 80s when he began working for Sydney Festival. He subsequently went on to become an integral part of the senior management teams of the Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and Womadelaide Festival. Recent Awards include: 2015 Helpmann Award for Best Scenic Design for Little Bird; Ruby Award for Sustained Contribution; Green Room Award Best lighting Design for Night Letters; Sydney Theatre Award Best Lighting Design for Never Did Me Any Harm. Geoff is Slingsby’s Artistic Associate (Design).

Quincy Grant

Composer

Quincy has spent his life being a freelance composer and musician. He has played and written for many bands over the decades, in many different styles – the most recent being the despicable gypsy band Golonka and the folk outfit Miranda Bede. 

He has written over seventy works for soloists, chamber ensembles and orchestras that have been performed in hundreds of concerts. And written the music for over forty theatre works, for companies all over Australia, with his second opera being scheduled for performance in 2025. 

He has toured many countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. 

He is co-director of The Firm, a company that presents concerts each year featuring Australian classical musicians in programmes of new Australian music along-side carefully chosen repertoire. 

Quincy lives in Adelaide with his dear Anna, and has three children: Arland, Clara and Miranda.

Production Credits

  • Writer Finegan Kruckemeyer
  • Starring Nathan O'Keefe
  • Musician Cam Goodall
  • Musician Anya Anastasia
  • Musician Quincy Grant
  • Director Andy Packer
  • Composer Quincy Grant
  • Designer Wendy Todd
  • Lighting Design Dave Green
  • Initial Design Concept Geoff Cobham
  • Animation People's Republic Of Animation
  • Imagery Andy Ellis
  • Stage Manager Roland Partis

Production Credits

What people are saying

“Adelaide's Slingsby Theatre Company has created another truly magical, moving, all-encompassing world which is as mysterious as its title and enchants young and old alike.” The Advertiser

“The magic which is Man Covets Bird cannot possibly be described in writing. It is a show that truly needs to be seen by everyone.” Australian Stage Online

“***** [five stars] … brilliant feelgood family theatre with a depth that speaks to any generation.” Sunday Mail

“Best show I’ve ever seen! ... Thank you for a wonderful production! 10/10”

Chantelle, Audience Member - Facebook

Educational Resources