Hen & Chickens Archives - North West End UK

Channel Surfing at The End of Days – Hen & Chickens

22Apr

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Channel Surfing at The End of Days – Hen & Chickens

CHANNEL SURFING AT THE END OF DAYS, written and directed by Callum Pardoe, takes the form of a series of short vignettes – glimpses into people’s lives in the moments before the world instantaneously and unexpectedly ends. Pardoe’s script excels at depicting the unusual, mysterious, and supernatural. A woman is tasked by an unsettling being to deliver an ancient letter to a private investigator. A grieving father is tormented by a beastly entity. Two brothers bicker about whether or not to contact their dead parents via séance. Pardoe demonstrates an excellent ability to build intrigue and suspense. These vignettes perfectly balance comedy and pathos along with a growing sense of dread, and the effect is gripping. By contrast, the more mundane scenes of everyday life somewhat fal...

choke me – Hen & Chickens

choke me – written and performed by Alexandra Montalbano – is a new one-woman reinterpretation of Punishment without Revenge by Lope de Vega. The plot follows Cas as she navigates the bizarre love triangle that she finds herself in. Trapped in a loveless marriage with her older, boring, cheating husband, she starts having an affair of her own with her husband’s son – her stepson. The plot jumps around, as Cas – in relaying the story to the audience – forgets things and has to go back and explain past events in order to bring the audience up to speed. As such, there are plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience engaged, although moment to moment it can sometimes be hard to work out where a scene is leading and what it’s purpose in the plot is. The play leans more towards comedy...

Spare Room – Hen & Chickens Theatre

As soon as you step into the Hen & Chickens Theatre, you’re immersed in the sticky world of Spare Room. A drunken girl flippantly tells you to “sit where you like”. Unconscious bodies slump over ratty furniture, grease-soaked pizza boxes line the floor, and dance music hums in the background. It’s an immediately familiar sight (shudder): a shared uni student house. The action kicks off with sweet Jodie (Georgina Housby) turning up at the grotty pad with a suitcase and admirable optimism as she introduces herself as the new occupant of the spare room. She initially thinks she has female company in the house after seeing a ‘Mary’ listed as a housemate in the online ad, only to find out that’s merely a bizarre nickname for a bloke called Richard — making her the only girl in a hous...