In her poignant and funny memoir, “George,” poet and artist Frieda Hughes finds hope and purpose taking care of an injured baby magpie.

So poetry is where I put things I feel very, very strongly about, and reading a poem like that on stage, you feel as though you're delivering it as a killer blow. It might only be for one moment ...

The press material advises that the play is based on a famous New Zealand poem, “The Magpies,” by Denis Glover, but there is no indication of this in the program.