PLUCKED by Rachel Ganz, directed by Carly Chamberlain, with Faisal Butt, Sochi Fried, Tyrone Savage, Tim Machin, Tim Walker and Qianna MacGilchrist. Presented by Newborn Theatre/SummerWorks at the Theatre Centre Mainspace (1115 Queen West). August 5 at 5:15 pm, August 6 at 1 pm, August 7 at 9:15 pm, August 9 at 7:45 pm, August 10 at 4 pm, August 12 at 5 pm, August 14 at 6 pm. $15. 416-320-5779, summerworks.ca.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
In the fantasy-tinged universe of Plucked, playwright Rachel Ganz doesnt look at origins but rather at consequences. Hers is a barnyard world where women turn into chickens and find their eggs are more valuable than gold for the play’s controlling male figures.
The chicken image came up through an exercise when I was a student at the National Theatre School, recalls Ganz. Youre asked to close your eyes and move around the room, then write about what youve experienced in the darkness.
I was nervous to be roaming around the room blind, and the exercise produced an image of anxiety: an anorexic-looking woman with chicken legs. Though it terrified me, I soon discovered that the figure had a very loud voice.
Talking about that character with Brian Drader, director of playwriting at the school, she found herself delivering a monologue with a Kentucky accent about a chicken woman whose husband was stealing her eggs.
At the time, the idea of that theft was absurd and funny the tragedy of it hadnt hit me yet.
The monologue led to Plucked, whose characters include a patriarchal Rooster and his daughter, Abigail her husband, Jerry their daughter, Fourteen and an innocent, attractive farm boy, Harley, who falls in love with Fourteen and wants to run away with her.
The Kentucky accent from that original monologue has influenced the script in several ways, says Ganz. I write impulsively, and bluegrass music seemed natural as a way of telling the tale. When I researched it, I realized that the lyrics and melodies, with their roots in gospel and the African-American voice, were often about finding freedom the women in the play are both on that journey.
While some people see the script as inspired by gender politics, Ganz prefers to view it as a personal statement about mothers and daughters and the lies that can be told in a family.
I guess it has political weight, but Im surprised when someone says that its a radical piece of theatre.
Director Carly Chamberlain, who went to school with Ganz, is her collaborator on this production, as she has been with two previous scripts. Its a union that works for both women.
Carly is a linear thinker, grounded and articulate Im none of those things, laughs the playwright. She focuses my work in a fortifying way, yet she loves to take risks and play with big ideas onstage.
We were first paired in an exercise where I had to write a 15 minute play. I gave her three scripts and she was brave enough to choose the most abstract, a fantasy about a vagina that was full of imagery rather than the usual text.
Sometimes I write shows that seem to be impossible to stage, as if I were daring someone to do them she takes the dare and doesnt worry about it. Carly gets what Ive written in a way that others often only question.
