With a call-back to Ionesco and Absurd Theatre, this theatrical sketch tells the story of Ming and Yifei, whose blissful married life in their bijou sea-view apartment is threatened by an invasion of chickens, roaming the courtyard the share with a fellow tenant and keeper of the chickens.
For the first part of the show, the threat of chicken invasion, the increasingly bizarre presence of feathers and droppings, the growing tension in the couple’s relationship, make for a satisfyingly strange morality tale powered by uncanny poultry encounters. Then it seems to undergo a 180-degree turn into a not at all weird account of marital oppression and revenge, with nary a chicken in sight.
It feels very much as if the writer Dongmeng Chen had a crisis of confidence in the absurdist premise and turned towards more conventional storytelling. That’s a shame because the domestic tragedy is nowhere near as compelling as the chicken fable.
Ionesco’s Rhinoceros would have less resonance if the population of a Romanian village had remained dull conformists. It is their transformation into rhinos that ensure the play’s longevity. This production needs more feathers and more chickens. Many more.
For more information about future productions at Hen and Chickens, please use the link below.
Reviewed by Chris Lily.
Two Stars.
Leave a comment