Chicken’s sliver beet feud an award-winner

DO you often encounter some surprising or unexpected friendships in life? Our heroine did in “Still Life with Chickens,” a small-venue theater play to be staged at Shanghai Grand Theater this week.

In the Auckland Theatre Company production, “Mama” discovers a mischievous chicken invading her flourishing vegetable garden, and her first instinct is to reach for the spade. However, what starts out as a skirmish over a sliver beet develops into an unlikely friendship.

Award-winning playwright David Fa’auliuli Mamea, from New Zealand, paints a vivid portrait of a neighborhood’s colorful characters. Zelanian actress Goretti Chadwich gives a tour-de-force performance, revealing Mama’s dreams for her family and herself. All in all, it’s an intimate, heart-warming and funny play about friendship, loss, love and life.

As a popular work in New Zealand, “Still Life with Chicken” was a winner of the 2017 Adam Play Award. It also pocketed two Wellington Theatre awards in 2018 — Outstanding New NZ Play and Outstanding Performance. It’s Chadwick’s 13th production with Auckland Theatre Company, and the role won her the Excellence Award for Performance at the 2018 Auckland Theatre Awards.

“Still Life with Chicken” is being performed in Asia for the first time. It’s among the 12 plays of Shanghai Grand Theater’s inaugural International Theater Season, which aims at introducing quality small-venue works to the city’s theatergoers.

Date: December 18-21, 7:30pm, December 22, 2:30pm

Tickets: 80-380 yuan

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater Address: 300 People’s Ave