REVIEW: The Cockatoos | Happy Dagger Theatre

It was with some trepidation that I went in to review Happy Dagger Theatre’s stage adaptation of Patrick White’s The Cockatoos. I was unfamiliar with the source material and knew very little of the acclaimed author, so I was afraid I’d be starting off on the wrong foot, or at a severe disadvantage. But then I reminded myself that the true test of any stage adaptation, it must work as a theatre piece on its own, otherwise it’s a bit of a pointless exercise.

So, with that in mind, I held out hope that I would not be lost in the audience, wondering what I was missing, wishing I was staring into a book rather than sitting in a theatre. I should have realised that with the story, script and staging in director Andrew Hale’s hands, I needn’t have been worried at all. It worked.

Read the full review on Australian Stage here.

CICELY BINFORD