Helen Macdonald Tickets

Helen Macdonald is a British writer, naturalist and historian who has had a profound impact on the world of literature. Her most famous work, H is for Hawk, is a memoir that tells the story of how she trained a goshawk after the death of her father. While Macdonald may not seem like an obvious candidate for a theatre enthusiast, her background demonstrates a deep appreciation for drama and performance.

Macdonald's early career was rooted in the theatre industry, where she worked as a set designer and stage manager. She studied at Cambridge University, where she joined the prestigious Footlights comedy troupe. This experience likely contributed to her uniquely narrative voice, which blends humor and sorrow in equal measure.

Beyond her practical involvement in various productions, Macdonald has also written about the relationship between theatre and wildlife. In her regular column for The Guardian, she once described a lynx sighting as "a performance, I suppose, a play, one in which we humans were an audience." This reframing of natural events as theatrical performances speaks to Macdonald's understanding of the power of storytelling to create empathy and connection.

This sense of heightened drama is echoed throughout much of H is for Hawk. Macdonald writes at length about her own experiences training the hawk, but she also weaves in scenes from T.H. White's Arthurian novels, which she read as a child. The combination of her own autobiography with this fictional material makes for a rich, layered narrative that evokes a sense of deep time and archetypal resonance.

In addition to her writing about theatre and animal behavior, Macdonald has also been involved in theatrical productions in recent years. In 2017, she oversaw a production at London's National Theatre that was based on her book. The show featured live hawks on stage, prompting an intimacy and immediacy that could only be achieved through theatre.

Overall, Helen Macdonald's work demonstrates a deep reverence for the ways in which drama can shape our understanding of the world around us. Whether she is writing about animal behavior, family tragedy, or theatre itself, her nuanced approach to storytelling has made her one of the most captivating voices in contemporary literature.