Chicken – Dublin Fringe Festival – Review

Eva O’Connor & Hildegard Ryan – Sunday’s Child
07-15 September – Project Arts Centre

In this piece, we meet Don Murphy, a proud Irish man and of course, as can be seen in the image above, a chicken, or a cock to be more precise. This is the tale of how one cock was taken ‘under the wing’ of a human family from Kerry and grew up to become one of the most famous fowls in Irish history! Take that Dustin the Turkey.

The Cube in the Project Arts Centre is set up in the round, with seats on four sides. The lights dim in the theatre and after the stage announcements, you can hear the audience start to giggle as Eva O’Connor takes to the stage, in all her prancing glory. She slowly struts her way out to the centre of the stage, with brisk flaps of her wings and occasional clucks. She lets the magnificence of her costume take full effect before she breaks the ice, joking with the audience that they were worried it was a 60-minute-long silent performance art piece!

This is a new work by Sunday’s Child Theatre Company, a company set up by Eva O’Connor and Hildegard Ryan. Chicken is just back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it received several four and five-star reviews from sites such as The Skinny, and The Stage.

The story is one of rags to riches, as the young cock tries to catch a break in acting, making his way onto the silver screen and becoming a name in Hollywood. As you would expect, the story is not without its troubles and this chicken falls foul of the dangers of drug abuse.

Productions like this only make sense once a year as this is truly the stuff of the Fringe Festival. At other times of the year, it could be accused of being self-indulgent or bizarre, but it all makes sense during the festival. There are many gags along the way and the piece does dabble with animal rights and other issues. The highlight of the production is the intensity and honesty Eva O’Connor brings to her performance. It is a far-fetched central conceit but one that she accepts completely, throwing herself into the part with sixty minutes of absurdist intensity. If you ever wondered what the life of a chicken involves and were afraid to ask, look no further.