Bird of Passage play

Gallery

Below are photographs of three locations mentioned in the play. Click on the photo, to read captions.

Larry Hall’s house on Orr’s Island, Maine. Also, the Fishouse.
Harpswell, a few miles away, where the Estes family lived and where Steven’s cousin Lou Ward lived; and
Fos-y-Rhiew, the farm on the Welsh border once owned by Geoff Morris. The character of Sonny in Ginny’s novel is based on Geoff Morris.

Orr’s Island, Maine

Driveway to Lawrence S. Hall’s House on Orr’s Island, Maine.

Lawrence S. Hall’s house in 1994. Large upstairs windows overlook the field and Reed Cove. The bedroom is to the left. Hall’s study where he and the playwright both wrote to the right.

Larry’s wood burning stove. One day the chimney caught fire. Two fireman arrived. They shared one uniform. Jacket on one fireman. Pants on the other.

The Fishhouse where Larry Hall wrote, on the shore of Reed Cove, a ten minute walk from his property. The Fishouse was originally used for drying codfish but had been abandoned on a wharf in 1943. Hall had it moved to his property and put in a larger window. After his death, a Maine poet acquired the Fishouse and moved it to his property further north. The close up photos are from the interior, unchanged from when Hall wrote there.

Larry’s desk in the Fishouse. Wood stove in the corner.

Detail 2 – In the Fishhouse

“The Ledge”

View from Harpswell, Maine where the Estes lived across the road from Lou and Loretta Ward’s current home.

The Estes’ old home in Harpswell, Maine.

Harpswell Harbor. The dock where Buster would have departed the morning he died and where his body was brought home.

Buster Estes’ grave in the West Harpswell Cemetery.

Monument for Steven.

Lou Ward (and his wife Loretta). Lou is Steven Estes’ cousin.

Lou is a recently retired lobster man. He practices magic.

Fos-y-Rhiew

Geoff and Rover. Geoff actually had two sheepdogs, both named Rover. When the playwright asked why two dogs with the same name he said, “Colby, I call one, they both come.”

Geoff Morris seen here in 1994 at Fos-y-Rhiew, his small farm on the border between Shropshire and Mid Wales. The playwright was his neighbor the summer of 1988 and again in the winter of 1993-94.

Tea time at Fos-y-Rhiew.

Geoff in front of the open fire in his kitchen. The floor was slate. The fire burned every day of the year.

Geoff could read a little and write a little.

Note pot on the windowsill where the chicken sat for two days.

Geoff’s farewell note to the playwright

Geoff’s smile.

When the playwright helped him write checks he would say, “Sun shinin’ keep smilin’.”

Geoff with the playwright at his 70th birthday party at Fos-y-Rhiew in 1987.

Geoff and Rover with the playwright that cold winter after he ate the chicken in 1994.

Geoff looked like this when I found him the day he nearly died.

Fos-y-Rhiew coming to an end. Geoff went to live in Stone House in Bishop’s Castle where he was well cared for until he died. When the playwright visited him there, he thought they were living on a farm, with rabbits. He would urinate in the potted plants in the hallway — always an outdoor man.

Geoff’s gravestone a five minute walk from Fos-y-Rhiew.