The Golden Bird

He pretended he was a ghost, and that nobody knew he was there.

Andrew is unhappy, and finds it hard to speak. One day his teacher writes a school play based on The Sleeping Beauty, and to Andrew’s horror he is given a part in it. It’s a made-up character called the Golden Bird. When he realises that he doesn’t have to say anything in the play, he decides that he will try to be as much like a bird as possible.

The idea for The Golden Bird came when I was writing a Christmas play for the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme. I dramatised The Sleeping Beauty, and I invented a character called the Golden Bird, a magical creature who binds the story together. The actor who played the part was called Andrew, and was very tall. It was amazing to watch how he ‘became’ a bird, pecking and moving his body like a bird, flapping his arms as though they were wings, even before he was given his costume. I really expected that by the time the play was performed he would be able to fly!