Darrel is a simply simple middle-aged man who lives with his mother. When she dies in her sleep, Darrel does not realise she is gone, and so, for ten days, he lives alone. Tandem to Darrel’s day to day routine are the adventures of his favorite children’s book characters, Honeydog and Little Burp. Their search for a home leads the dog and duck duo to an understanding of family, while Darrel’s ease in the world illustrates just how his mother has paved the path for him to be without her. Episodes from the past, like faded colour snapshots from a family album, illustrate this mother’s love for her son in all its honesty and fierce, unwavering will. Simple, tender, funny and unapologetic, 10 Days On Earth asks: If you were alone, but didn’t know it, would you feel lonely?
10 Days on Earth is a co-production with BITE (London, UK); CanStage (Toronto, Canada); queerupnorth (Manchester, UK); and Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, Austria).
“The result is both desolate and warmly sentimental, as if a Samuel Beckett play about the loneliness of existence had been bashed over the head by The Wizard of Oz and Mother Goose. Burkett, who in the past has often shared the stage with his creations, here takes a more traditional puppet master stance.”
– The Guardian, Lyn Gardner, Monday 23 April 2007
“10 Days On Earth is Heavenly. Every show of Burkett’s I see just reaffirms my assertion that I will never miss one of his shows. And neither should you.”
– Review From The House, Amanda Lockitch, Canada, 2007