It is the future, and things aren’t going well. In London, the trees have been felled and concreted over. The north has declared independence, and the eastern counties are beginning to break away too – determined to make it on their own, even though many say that in 50 years they will be underwater. They have two economic trump cards: bicycles and chickens. As “the Separation” looms, “returners” start flocking back, and one of them is Layla (Beth Cooke), who gets a job in a chicken factory.
Playwright Molly Davies wrote God Bless the Child for the Royal Court and is the first woman to receive the Pinter Commission. There is much to intrigue in her new piece, which conjures the landscape of the Fens – a sky so big it can gobble you up – and something more strange and secretive too. Layla’s factory supervisor is Lorraine (Josephine Butler), who is married to Harry (Benjamin Dilloway), who works on the killing line. Their teenage daughter Emily (Rosie Sheehy) is obsessed with the ancient stories of Fenland witches who swam in its ponds and ditches. She despises her parents and a world out of tune with itself.
As feathers start to fly and nature takes its revenge, the show seems to be channelling The Birds crossed with Chicken Run. With chickens outnumbering humans by six to one, it’s not going to be pretty. There’s no help from the foxes: they’ve all headed to London to support the weeds in their fight against the southerners.
Steven Atkinson’s production piles on the atmosphere, but there is such a lack of specifics about the political situation that this dystopia remains frustratingly vague. Some individual moments and scenes sing with possibilities, but it’s less a well-laid play that holds together than a draft for a more ambitious drama that is being exposed too soon.
- At Roundabout at Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 30 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000
