A performative reading with sound, humour and a touch of abstraction.
Eugene Schieffelin, an American ornithologist, sets out to introduce to the United States every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s play but not native to America. It is the second half of the 19th century and humanity is more and more convinced of its greatness and of the infallibility of the human mind. Little did Schieffelin know that, owing to his decision and the work done by the American Acclimatization Society, the United States would one day fall victim to an avian plague on an unprecedented scale. Contemporary US farmers have every right to be angry. The question is what or rather who is to blame for the disaster? Is it the starlings that destroy crops, the benevolent ornithologist or perhaps Shakespeare himself? Schieffelin, Shakespeare, a farmer and a starling meet in a timeless place to finally set things straight.