A folk tale about death and love that combines performance, puppetry and live music to bring you an unforgettable evening of storytelling.

In this play, a young man stumbles upon Death in the woods, practicing his fiddle. This hapless carpenter has heard the first part of an improvised tune played by Death on his fiddle made of bone. Now he is trapped in limbo: he has seen Death but cannot die until the tune ends. Luckily for him, the interruption has put Death off his stride.

The pair strike a bargain. If Death can finish the tune by sunset, he will claim the carpenter’s life for himself. If Death fails, the man will go free. Playing for time, the carpenter draws Death into talking about his music and the unlikely love story behind his fiddle.

Following a successful Edinburgh run of Talk (2019) and a sold out run of Macbeth in The Westgate Towers Canterbury (2022), Parrot Theatre Company presents Death and the Carpenter, a darkly funny story that explores the universal themes of love, death, and fate. Adapted from a short story of the same name by acclaimed writer Sonia Overall, Death and the Carpenter reimagines death and mortality through the folk music of Greg Ireland and the puppetry of James Frost.

In a small clearing in a deserted woods, Death and the Carpenter gets to grips with the fleeting nature of time and the reality of losing the ones you love. Through simple story telling, this folktale immerses the audience into a world where death and beauty exist side by side and where death has a voice, a voice that rings loud and clear.