05/08/2025
Sparrow: A Life in Six Acts by UK Cypriot Des Ttoouli at Theatro Technis
Des Ttoouli is a second generation Cypriot living in London. Her parents are from the village of Akanthou, known as the village of teachers. She has been writing for children and adults for many years and is currently finishing a Masters in ‘Writing for Performance’ at the University of Cambridge.
And what a great solo performance she gave at the Theatro Technis as part of the Camden Fringe in front of a full house.
Her work Sparrow: A Life in Six Acts, was read at Theatro Technis, was born out of her studies for the Masters. Sparrow, a young girl, leads us through the six most important events of her life, from her youth to her arranged marriage and beyond. As she fights to protect herself and her family from abuse, sickness, poverty and loss,
Sparrow learns to empower herself despite the trials of womanhood and the limi-tations set by her Cypriot culture in England. Duty, loyalty and love can be a force for good or a means of imprisonment. In six emotional acts will Sparrow unfold her wings and fly?
Des has taken certain events and fictionalised them in order to make the work resonant and viscerally engaging.
The first monologue, Little Sparrow, was produced as a short play at the Judith Wilson Studio in Cambridge to great success. She has followed up the work with five other monologues, hence, ‘a life in six acts’, and is hoping to take it to the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2026. She is currently adapting it into a TV series. She is collaborating with a director to make Little Sparrow into a Short.
Des also writes poetry and has a memoir using her knowledge of Botany as inspiration and motifs.
She is also a watercolour enthusiast, she sculpts and is a print-maker and works in a number of other mediums. She has had a number of shows of her artwork and co-curated The Green Line project in Cyprus, taking renowned artists Anthony Gormly, Ian McLellan, Pavel Buchler and others with the intent of producing artwork to be exhibited on The Green Line and building Rapprochement bet-ween the two cultures in Cyprus.