Under the Blazing Desert Sun
A Kingless Kingdom is Left Undone
But Tonight the King Returns from War
To Find His Queen is Dead No More.

Tartaglia, King of Monterotondo, hits town after 18 years of waging war to discover that his mother, the evil Tartagliona, has done away with his Queen, Ninetta, on a trumped up charge of crimes against nature. The Queen Mother, egged on by her scheming toady, the poet Brighella, is determined to hold on to the throne at all costs!

Two Infant Twins with Royal Roots
Fished from the River in their Birthday Suits
Sent to Death by the King's Ugly Mother
Now They are Nothing but Sister and Brother

Little does the King know that his wife still lives, as do his children, the twins Barbarina and Renzo, who have survived a villainous attempt to do away with them and grown up in the care of Truffaldino and Smeraldina, the King's Sausage Maker and his Wife. Respectively.

The road to resolving this mess involves a sexy statue, a know-it-all stone head, a trip to Nowhere Mountain, a snake of biblical proportions and a mysterious Green Bird upon whom everything hinges.

Written in the 18th century by Carlo Gozzi and given a dash of rocket sauce by Steven Epp of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, The Green Bird is directed by Strawdog emeritus member Nic Dimond.