The Last Curlew musical show lands in Pointe-Claire and Hudson this weekend
Journalist and author Fred Bodsworth wrote the book The Last of the Curlews in 1955.
The prescient tale traces the migration of the last curlew on Earth as he searches for a mate along his perilous route to South America and back to Canada’s Arctic.
CBC Radio 2 host Tom Allen’s adaptation of the story comes to St-Columba-by-the-Lake Presbyterian Church in Pointe-Claire on Saturday, and to the Hudson Village Theatre on Sunday. The Last Curlew features co-narrators Allen and Annika Broadhead, harpist (and Allen’s wife) Lori Gemmell, violinist Mark Fewer, and dancerchoreographer Julie Aplin.
Allen knew of the book as a child, but did not fully engage with the compelling story until Gemmell spoke to him about the many bird references in a beautiful composition by Alexina Louie. Was there something they could do with it?
And so the multi-disciplinary show was born.
“It is a quietly powerful story,” Allen said. “(Bodsworth) was a journalist and a storyteller. You can feel that push and pull between the two.”
The Eskimo curlew was a migratory bird that once thrived in Canada’s Arctic and Alaska, but because there hasn’t been a documented sighting in more than 30 years, it is considered “possibly extinct.”
“All (migratory) shorebirds are in trouble,” Allen said. “They are globe trotters. Now humans have become globe trotters. But as we fly all over the world like a (shorebird), we are killing them. Their pathways are already in place; we have to leave them the space.”
Allen’s adaptation of the story is set 150 years in the future. The natural world has suffered a great deal. A grandfather and granddaughter hike to the site of the last documented sighting of a curlew in the hopes of experiencing a rare encounter.
“It is a journey of faith,” Allen said. “The fact that (Bodsworth) wrote the book in 1955 shows you what a pioneer he was. The bird was considered extinct at the time. But there is this feeling of hope.”
Dancer Alpin embodies the curlew with what Allen describes as “whimsy, athleticism and visceral muscularity.”
The Last Curlew is the sixth in a line of what Allen calls their “chamber musicals.” Next up is The Missing Pages — The Story of the Canadian Who Met Beethoven, set to debut at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival in July.
The Last Curlew is at St-Columba-by-the-Lake, 11 Rodney Ave., on April 29 at 7:30 p.m. The performance is a fundraiser for Jeunesse sans limite — La Corde, an elementary school breakfast, lunch and after school program in Pierrefonds. The suggested donation is $15. For information, call 514-697-2091 or visit www.stcolumba.ca.
The performance at Hudson Village Theatre, 28 Wharf Rd., is on April 30 at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $30. For information, call 450-458-5361 or visit www.villagetheatre.ca.