Colonel Bird perches at Little Theatre

The UCT Drama Department and the Little Theatre will stage Hristo Boytchev's The Colonel Bird, directed by Christopher Weare, at the Arena Theatre from 15-24 May.

The Colonel Bird is described as a "politicised One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and is said to subvert all conventional definitions of madness. War in Kosovo in the 1990s gave Bulgarian writer Boytchev's comic satire on Balkan politics a timely edge.

A doctor, who is probably not a doctor, arrives at a derelict monastery where six mental patients have been abandoned. The play then follows the misadventures of these six inmates, who declare that their forgotten 'convent' is an independent territory, and appoint themselves as a UN fighting force.

The Colonel Bird is performed by senior students of the UCT Drama School.

Tickets cost R50, and R35 for students. Bookings can be made by calling 021 480 7129 or email Susan Cole.

All shows start at 20h30, but there will be no show on Monday, 19 May.