Guest Reviewer Hamavand Engineer Shares His Thoughts on THE HEN HOUSE

8th September 2023, Riverside Theatre Parramatta

If an education in cleaning chicken carcasses is what you’re looking for, you’ll find it at The Hen House. If you want to laugh heartily in the process, you may not be so fortunate. The only way to describe this show is silly/funny. Silly because of the way in which a large chunk of the show focuses on describing what if feels like to rip open a chicken and funny because of the way in which it is described - elbows deep into their carcasses, ripping out giblets and using a power hose to clean them. Bizarre and hysterical, to say the least. However, hidden behind the laughter, lies a deeper story of courage, strength and resilience of two migrant women who come to Australia for a better life, but end up making a living at the hen house.

It's the 1970’s and we begin by learning of about what it feels like for the migrant women working in a thankless, boring and repetitive job on a chicken production line, run by an even more thankless and evil “Gary boss man”, who runs a tight ship and questions every move the women make and bullies them in order to have the upper hand. The woman are considered dispensable and their voices are unheard, save for a few close colleagues who chat amongst themselves, to get through yet another long, arduous day at work.

There’s Pavica (Mara Knezevic), a heavily accented Croatian woman who loves her job and joyfully describes the way she pulls apart her chicken carcasses and takes pride in getting deep inside and cleaning them out. However, there are 3 things that make life at the “f*ck-tory” as she accents it, very difficult - injuries, leaking pipes and no overtime. She wants to solve these for the women. However, what she really likes (and wants) is “respect”, something she works hard to achieve, and in the end, gets.

Then there’s Mila (Josipa Draisma), who absolutely hates her job and thinks everything about it is “shit”. Her only respite is her cigarette break, during which, Pavica constantly interrupts, explaining her pursuit to make things better at The Hen House for all the women. 

Both Pavica and Mila provide a minute by minute, hour by hour, detailed account of life at The Hen House, through their distinct, yet clear, Croatian accent. They then effortlessly switch accents, to play Gary Boss Man, with a rough-as-guts, bogan accent, who interrogates the women for stepping out of line. Then there’s Italian born Rosetta and annoying Joy, who is Australian born and ignorant to the challenges faced by the migrant women and her annoying questioning of their issues. Joy has the audience in stiches. The ease at which they switch between characters and accents is profound, and certainly maintains the audience’s thirst for laughter.

A slight technical glitch with the headset microphone 20 minutes into the show resulted in a short delay whist the problem was rectified, however, remaining in character during the process pleased the audience and the show went on without a glitch. Qudos to both women for maintaining their accents flawlessly throughout the show, which is by no means, a simple effort. Whilst Pavica is the main story teller, it was Mila who clearly stole the show for me. The conviction with which she spoke and her passion for disdain of The Hen House, made for a stronger performance than Pavica, who at times, fell flat at telling the story through the music. 

The story continues to unfold on the drive back home each day, when the women share their plight at the hen house and delicately bounce up and down on their knees, emulating the movement of the car. Pavica holds a chicken purse in her hand and provides detailed accounts of working with chickens. This has the audience constantly giggling at the importance of chickens in our lives. Mila drives faster and faster culminating in Pavica questioning whether they will ever survive in the hen house.

The all-female band stood in front of the tall, slender thick plastic curtains, depicting a deep freezer. They smashed out soft rock music illustrating the story. Pavica and Mila sang perfectly in unison, belting out song after song with the vengeance in their voice which they held for their boss man. The audience was in applause after each song. However, there were times, the song selection was poor, even redundant, as it did not necessarily tell or describe the story at that given time.

An hour and half into the show, it got a little boring, as there was only so much I could take listening to what it felt like to dissect a chicken and my empathy began to wane. I became bored and less entertained. Perhaps expanding on how their job affected their home and family life at this point, would have added more depth and different angle to the story. However, the pace picked up again and we see Pavica handling the boss man with strength, eventually leading to a victory to have him kicked out of the Hen house and the women celebrating his leave.

The Hen House may work for certain audiences, but it didn’t necessarily hit the mark for me. It’s entertaining enough for a bit off a laugh, but silly enough to ask yourself whether it warrants an hour and a half of comedy.

The Hen House plays the Camden Civic Centre Auditorium on Wednesday 13th September 7:30pm and
Thursday 14th September 11:00am

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