Cuckoo Land

1996.

Northern Ireland’s on the brink.

Politics is a boys’ club, and we’re done pretending otherwise.

This high‑voltage piece of gig theatre, based on real political transcripts and lived experience, smashes open the true story of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition.

Cuckoo Land throws audiences straight into the adrenaline of a movement built from kitchen tables, community halls, and pure stubborn hope. These weren’t career politicians. They were activists, mothers, social workers, academics; women who realised that if they didn’t fight their way into the process, nobody was ever going to open the door for them.

Set against the chaos of a world pre‑Good‑Friday‑Agreement, Cuckoo Land captures the reality these women faced: heckling, misogyny, mockery, threats, and the relentless pressure to leave the “real politics” to the men.

But they didn’t.

They built a party from the ground up in six weeks, recruited a hundred candidates, and walked into negotiations with a manifesto grounded in equality, human rights, and cooperation.

This is the story of what happens when women crash the party, refuse to behave, and drag a country toward a different future, one cigarette and late‑night strategy session at a time.

Cuckoo Land is finally gives these women the spotlight — loud, bright, and long overdue.