“This is beautiful, sophisticated storytelling told with humble materials and huge imagination.”
Fiona Hallenan-Barker
4 Stars
Venue : The Studio, Sydney Opera House
Presented by Dan Colley and Riverbank Arts Centre
Saturday 16 August 2025
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings directed by Dan Colley and performed by Aidan Crowe and Pattie Maguire embraces magical realism with a rough-around-the-edges charm that invites audiences young and old into a world where angels are kept in chicken coops and storytelling is both playful and profound. The adaptation by Dan Colley, Manus Halligan and Genevieve Hulme-Beaman takes Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Nobel Prize winning short story and reenvisages it as an intimate puppetry piece for young audiences.
At its core, this is a strange and often funny story. A very old man with enormous wings grubby, grounded, and utterly unglamorous appears in a storm and is swiftly confined to a chicken coop by a frightened family who believe he may be there to take their sick baby to heaven.
The story unfolds with a stop-start rhythm that is charming, awkward, deadpan, and precise. Crowe and Maguire’s chemistry is rooted in subtle comedic tension, as they bounce off the audience and each other with sideward glances and moments of shared bewilderment. Their faces of wonder and dry humour keep things buoyant even as the narrative dips into darker thematic territory.
The chickens, understandably perturbed, become unlikely comic relief, hilariously asserting their boundaries and stealing the show for many younger viewers.
This is theatre in its purest, most imaginative form. Traditional storytelling is supported by intimate puppetry, foley sound looping (from rustling paper rolls to inventive cork soundscapes), and live filming that all combine to build a world of delicate absurdity. Small cameras cleverly amplify the small visual details on each paper puppet. Lamps glow warmly. A wooden bookcase and a few cardboard cutouts suggest entire landscapes. There is a high level of theatrical resourcefulness using carboard, cork, feathers and imagination.
Gentle lighting by Sarah Jane Shiels, repeated motifs, and clear visual signposting help younger audience members navigate the story. The audio visual, composition and sound design by Eoin Kilkenny and Alma Kelliher is exceptionally well conceived. The production is recommended for older primary students due to some darker themes, but in truth, any child who’s comfortable with Roald Dahl, David Walliams, Fairy Tales and Folklore will likely be more than fine. There are no cheap frights, and thankfully no sugar sweet pandering either. The play invites a young audience into the grey area between right and wrong. As the family profits from the angel’s presence, their moral ambiguity grows. Their child is warned away from the coop, the angel remains confined, and the line between protector and prisoner blurs.
And how does it all end? Well, you’ll just have to see it for yourself. It’s a haunting, quiet climax that leaves questions echoing long after the final feather has drifted to the floor. This is beautiful, sophisticated storytelling told with humble materials and huge imagination. It makes no claims to be educational, but imparts lasting impressions about human nature, fear of the unknown, and the strange things we do sometimes for unknown reasons.
At its heart, it’s a story about kindness, fear, misunderstanding, and the blurry line between right and wrong. It’s about what we do when something or someone strange lands in our lives. And it doesn’t offer answers. Don’t go expecting spectacle. Go expecting honesty, and some very funny chickens.
photos by Daniel Boud
Fiona Hallenan-Barker, Theatre Now
