One Woman Play 'Still Life With Chickens' Tours NZ

New Play About a Samoan Woman’s Delightful Friendship with a Chicken Tours Auckland, Wellington And Palmerston North

A heart-warming, award-winning new New Zealand play about a Samoan woman’s relationship with a stray hen that has invaded her garden will premiere at the Auckland Arts Festival in March as part of Auckland Theatre Company’s 25th anniversary season.

A tale of family, community, loss and love and the things that make life worth living. Still Life With Chickens, by D.F. Mamea, is a one-woman tour-de-force for a superb comic actress.

Played by Goretti Chadwick (Pani and Pani, Sione’s Wedding), Mama strikes up a grudging friendship with the rogue chicken, relaying to it her struggles with her old man, her palagi daughter-in-law, her immigrant neighbours and the grandchildren she rarely sees.

Chadwick brings her consummate skills to the role, along with her renowned clownish sense of humour, and shares the stage with just a chicken, specially designed for the production by Arts Laureate John Parker (Red Speedo, The Good Soul of Szechuan, Chicago).

“Mama is based on the writer's mother, yet she is relatable to so many Pacific mamas we know and love. A passionate strong Samoan matriarch bringing up her family in a modern world. She would think nothing of reaching for the spade if a chicken dared to dig up her vege garden,” Chadwick says.

Still Life With Chickens is directed by renowned actor Fasitua Amosa (Lysistrata, Dirty Laundry), who earlier this year directed the critically acclaimed show The Mountaintop at the Basement Theatre.

Playwright D.F.Mamea has worked on film, television, radio and theatre projects in genres ranging from sci-fi to soap, comedy to horror and documentary to drama. His play Goodbye My Feleni was produced throughout New Zealand in 2013. Still Life With Chickens won the Adam NZ Play Award (2017) and the Playmarket Best Play by a Pasifika Playwright (2017).

Following the Auckland Arts Festival season, in which the show will play at both Māngere Arts Centre - Ngā Tohu o Uenuku and ASB Cube at ASB Waterfront Theatre, Still Life With Chickens will tour to Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North in April and Wellington’s Circa Theatre in May.

For more information or to order a copy of the 2018 season brochure, please visithttps://www.atc.co.nz/whats-on/

Subscriptions are now open for Auckland Theatre Company’s 2018 season. Subscribers are the first to hear about additional offerings and events throughout the year, before they are announced publicly.

SHOW INFORMATION

Still Life With Chickens
Māngere Arts Centre - Ngā Tohu o Uenuku: 8 - 14 March 2018
ASB Cube, ASB Waterfront Theatre: 17 - 24 March 2018
Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North: 7 – 15 April
Circa Theatre, Wellington: 8 May – 2 June

CREATIVE TEAM
Written by: D.F. Mamea
Directed by: Fasitua Amosa
Costume designer: John Parker
Set designer: John Parker
Lighting designer: Marcus McShane

CAST
Mama: Goretti Chadwick

By arrangement with Playmarket.

Still Life with Chickens received development assistance from Playmarket and Auckland Theatre Company.

Community Outreach Partner: ASB

ENDS

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