Chicken Dust

Ben Weatherill

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781474257329
• eBook ISBN: 9781474257336
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

Oh this ain't a farm. This is a loading dock. No such things as farms anymore, not around here. A chicken farm in rural England. New boy Tim has just arrived for his first shift. The job is pretty simple: grab chickens seven at a time by their legs and ram them into cages for shipping. All of this in the dark, stomping around in ankle-deep chicken shit, muck and mud. Tim's teammates are old-timers, with cigarettes dangling from their lips and pantyhose up their arms to protect their skin. Feathers cling to clothes. This band of survivors doesn't want much: just to stay in the countryside, catch the chickens, and earn the best living they can. But the chickens are dying, rotting from the inside-out like hot fruit just hours after they arrive. As disease spreads and pressure mounts, enter Oscar, the meticulous poultry inspector... A hard-hitting exploration of the human cost of our enormous appetite for cheap meat. Winner of the Curve Leicester's Playwriting Competition and first seen as a staged reading at the Finborough Theatre's annual Vibrant: A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, Chicken Dust marks the full-length debut of a new playwright. It received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre on 1 March 2015.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Theatre's Programme Pages
• Chicken Dust
• Characters
• Scene One
• Scene Two
• Scene Three
• Scene Four
• Scene Five
• Scene Six
• Scene Seven
• Scene Eight
• Scene Nine
• Scene Ten
• Scene Eleven
• Scene Twelve
• Scene Thirteen
• Scene Fourteen
• Scene Fifteen