This was a family show, greatly enjoyed by both parents and their children, a magic-realist gem of theatre and storytelling, featuring a combination of music, puppetry and live video (through the use of iphones), from Ireland.
The show is a well conceived and very easy to follow stage adaptation of a brilliant short story/fable by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After days of rain, a life of a young couple, with their baby, is changed forever when they discover a very old man with enormous wings lying face down, his face covered in mud, in their courtyard.
He is dressed in raggedy clothing and is very dirty. He talks to them in an indecipherable dialect (the kids loved this!). They think that he might be a castaway from a shipwreck. Their neighbour thinks that he is an angel. The town hear about this angel that they have been keeping, and descend upon the courtyard, where the couple have imprisoned him in a chicken coop, and he is treated like a freak show attraction. What will become of the young couple, their baby who had been sick until the very old man’s arrival, and the local community who have been thrown in a tizz?
This show was a delight, a great way to spend a sunny Sydney Saturday afternoon in the harbour city, and playing in the intimate Studio theatre, in the iconic cultural venue that is the Sydney Opera House.
A Dan Colley and Riverbank Arts Centre production with the support of Culture Ireland, A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS played the Studio Theatre Sydney Opera House between the 13th and 17th August 2025.
Production photography by Daniel Boud
