JULY 31 - AUGUST 22

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS
A MALTHOUSE THEATRE AND
STATE THEATRE COMPANY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA PRODUCTION

KNIVES IN HENS

BY DAVID HARROWER
DIRECTOR GEORDIE BROOKMAN
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER ANNA CORDINGLEY
COMPOSER AND SOUND DESIGNER
ANDREW HOWARD
LIGHTING DESIGNER PAUL JACKSON

CAST
KATE BOX
ROBERT MENZIES
DAN SPIELMAN

Set in a pre-industrial God-fearing rural village, Knives in Hens follows a young woman (Kate Box), recently married to the ploughman (Robert Menzies), as she discovers the limits of the language she has been given. When she meets the despised village miller (Dan Spielman), her world begins to shift as he introduces her to the written word and a world of language and imagination outside of blind faith.

To her husband she is as a field to be cultivated, but once free of the ploughman’s tether her unfurling self becomes a metaphor for the liberty of a life given leave to flourish. Ink and blood vie for the possession of an innocent soul, but can either match the strength of a woman who is finally learning to live?

David Harrower’s play, Blackbird, won the 2007 Olivier Award and astounded audiences in productions around the world. Earlier still, Knives in Hens, Harrower’s first play, had already become that rare thing: a genuine contemporary classic translated into more than a dozen languages.

Part psychological drama, part allegory, Malthouse Theatre is delighted to partner the State Theatre Company of South Australia to create a production in which director Geordie Brookman deftly realises the intensity of Harrower’s gothic imagination and the sublime beauty of his pastoral poem.