I spoke to indigenous playwright D.F. Mamea about his play STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS which will shortly have a season at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres.

The poetic scenario sees an elderly woman in the final stage of her life form a special friendship with a stray chicken which invades the vegie patch in her backyard. The chicken becomes her confidante as she tells the chicken everything that is on her mind.

The play is a one woman show which is performed by indigenous performer Goretti Chadwick with the chicken played by puppeteer and vocal performer Haanz Fa’avae-Jackson.

STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS has been very well received in New Zealand where it has garnered awards and has played both the North and South Island. 

The playwright spoke about how excited he was to see the play come across the ditch and that he and his wife will be coming to its opening  at the Riverside Theatre.

Mamea said he is now working on a new play called ‘Departures’ which is set in an airport lounge where he is waiting for his father.

“I see STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS being like a love letter to my mum, and the new play ‘Departures’ is like a love letter to my father’.

STILL LIFE WITH CHICKENS  opens at Parramatta’s  Riverside Theatres on Wednesday 7th August and plays until Saturday 10th August, 2019.

https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/still-life-with-chickens/