Chicken Dust

<i>Oh this ain't a farm. This is a loading dock. No such things as farms anymore not around here.</i><br/><br/>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. <br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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 . . .<br/><br/>A hard-hitting exploration of the human cost of our enormous appetite for cheap meat.<br/><br/>Winner of the Curve Leicester's Playwriting Competition and first seen as a staged reading at the Finborough Theatre's annual <i>Vibrant: A Festival of Finborough Playwrights</i> <i>Chicken Dust</i> marks the full-length debut of a new playwright. It received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre on 1 March 2015.