When Eva O’Connor and Hildegard Ryan created the character of Don Murphy, there’s no way they could have anticipated how far their hopelessly flawed, proud Irishman would go. Even more so because the ket-addicted, Oscar-winning actor isn’t a man at all – he’s a chicken.
“Our initial idea was to write a vegan call to arms, because we’re both vegan,” says O’Connor, who co-wrote Chicken and performs as its titular character. “We thought, what if we write a play from the POV of a chicken – it started as this kind of joke.” But the joke soon became serious business when the Summerhall venue – a former veterinary school – offered them a slot during the Edinburgh Fringe in a cramped space in the vast building’s basement. The room provided the perfect chicken coop-like setting for Don’s story.
“The play then took on a life of its own,” O’Connor continues, “and we ended up writing all about Don the chicken, who’s a famous actor, who shuns chicken-kind and is desperate to make it big in the industry.”
The bizarre yet heartfelt tale follows Don as he wrestles with identity, humanity’s flaws, and an addiction to ketamine, all while embarking on a journey of self-acceptance. On its initial run, audiences were taken in by the play’s mix of humour and absurdity but also how it balances comedy with introspection in an unexpected way.
“I thought it was an extremely serious piece,” O’Connor laughs. “But it’s actually really funny. I remember when we did our first show, it ran five minutes longer than I thought it would because everyone was laughing so much.
“But people also leave talking about things like how they now think differently about eating chicken or about the struggles of addiction and loneliness. And people often say they’re surprised by how much empathy they had for Don.”
O’Connor doesn’t hold back in her performance, permanently poised in pecking position, with feathers flapping in sync with every movement. “It’s probably the hardest show I’ve ever done,” she admits. “It feels like doing an intense hot yoga class while also trying to deliver a really good performance.” The physicality is so grueling that during one rehearsal, O’Connor suggested to director Hildegard Ryan that Don could perhaps perch on a stool every now and then. “She shot it down immediately, saying ‘Eva, chickens don’t use stools.’”
Adding to the immersion is a striking costume designed by Bryony Rumble, a frequent collaborator with Punchdrunk, that mimics the visceral presence of a bird. “There’s a weird flapping noise the costume makes,” O’Connor says. “It wasn’t planned, but it sounds so much like a bird that it freaks people out.”
Despite initial nerves about the show’s peculiar premise, Chicken has been met with critical acclaim, with nods like the Filipa Bragança award for best female-identifying solo performer at the Edinburgh Fringe 2023 and the Best Performer award at the Dublin Fringe 2024.
“Sometimes I feel like that happens with the shows that you’re least confident about,” O’Connor says of the reception. “I remember saying to our director before my first ever show, ‘I’m about to go on stage as a chicken, this could be so humiliating’. It felt like a very big creative risk, because the whole thing is batshit but it really paid off.”
With support from Culture Ireland and Australian producer Joanne Hartstone, O’Connor is excited to bring Chicken to new audiences this year. “Adelaide Fringe has such a great vibe,” she says. “I feel like they’re a bit like Edinburgh audiences – really, really open to seeing new stuff. It’s always exciting to tour because when you put so much work into building a show, you want as many people to see it as possible.”
As well as her run in Adelaide, O’Connor’s schedule is packed with the shooting of a short film with Screen Ireland, an upcoming tour of Chicken around Ireland and a London run of the show at Jermyn Street Theatre in May. “I guess we’re in that nice part when you’ve put all the work into the show, and then you get to bring it to people. It’s exciting,” she says.
Wherever O’Connor is headed next with Chicken, it’s likely that audiences will leave pondering the ethics of chicken consumption, wondering how our hero survived life in the celebrity spotlight or simply cackling at the absurdity of it all. Ultimately though, with his wide-eyed stare and endearing storytelling, Don Murphy is bound to prompt some hard truths about human (and chicken) kind.
Chicken, The Courtyard of Curiosities, until 9 March