Theatre: Comrade Egg and the Chicken of Tomorrow, Pleasance Courtyard

The audience are being asked to do something akin to the chicken dance, which they're embracing with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Comrade Egg and the Chicken of Tomorrow, Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

Comrade Egg and the Chicken of Tomorrow, Pleasance Courtyard * * *

A woman on stage tells us she's just come from something called 'the kill room.' There's an infantile mood paired with the uneasy feeling that we're about to be shown footage of chickens being slaughtered. But don't worry, while Bronya Deutsch's boundary pushing one-woman clown show might be interested in turning us all vegan, it's not going to do it in a way that's as obvious as that.

Deutsch plays an awkward woman who, it is revealed through stark storytelling captions, was bulled at school by a girl called Henny, who she's now ended up working for, slaughtering chickens. As our traumatised host harangues the audience into participating, the piece explores choice – in particular the choice we have as consumers in a capitalist world, where chickens are the embodiment of all kinds of products, including people. It's an innovative little show that feels in need of more development to explore it's, at times, elusive themes, but one that nevertheless offers an intriguing snapshot of a troubled life lived by a woman who ultimately knows how to set the chickens free, but not herself.

SALLY STOTT

Until 26 August

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