Theatre
DAVID HARROWER's first full-scale production, Knives In Hens is a play
where language takes centre stage. Set somewhere in sixteenth-century
Scotland -- dates and place names are not specified -- the piece focuses
on the lives of ploughman Pony William, his young wife, and the village
miller.
Within their world only objects with a concrete use are deemed worthy
of a name and the play traces the young woman's quest to create a
language for the thoughts and feelings in her head. The relationship the
woman forms with the learned miller (an outcast from the community for
supposedly murdering his wife and unborn child) gives her both the
practical and emotional tools she needs for self expression.
Knives In Hens is however much more than a dry philosophical tract on
the problems of language and communication. It draws us into a world
that is far from simple and shows us lives that are governed by
superstitious customs, misguided religious beliefs, fear, and hatred.
The play bubbles with a strong erotic undercurrent and as it progresses
layers of deceit, infidelity, and sexual desire are exposed. It is also
a surprisingly funny play, with its humour lying in our recognition that
the characters are not simple-minded peasants from yesteryear but people
like us with similar emotions, frustrations, and aspirations.
Martyn Bennett's live musical score gives the piece a vibrant sense of
urgency and Mark Lease's beautiful, simple stage design seems to reflect
the poetic sparsity of Harrower's language.
Knives in Hens is a bizarre, unsettling play that speaks to us in ways
that are both strange and familiar. It is a genuinely compelling piece
of theatre.
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