Costumes and music are highlights of Rosebud’s ridiculous, touching play

Times Contributor    

 

Chickens, Rosebud Theatre’s summer musical, opened May 30. This is Chickens’ third time at Rosebud Theatre, and judging by the nearly-sold-out crowd, audience guffaws throughout, and the demand for an encore, Rosebud fans are glad to have it back.

Pal (Andrew Cooper) and his wife Liza (Alixandra Cowman) are Alberta farmers in the 1980s, about to lose their five-generation farm. But Pal has a great idea – he’ll raise chickens, very special chickens. Pal’s chickens are so special, in fact, that he becomes the laughingstock of the community. Now he’s losing his farm, his hope … and his wife.

This is Andrew Cooper’s first time with Rosebud Theatre since he graduated from Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA) 10 years ago, though you might have seen him shine as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing in the Passion Play amphitheatre last summer. Cooper displays remarkable depth and diversity within this single role – despairing farmer, confused husband, imaginative entrepreneur, wooing lover. Alixandra Cowman, fourth-year RSA student, has appeared in several Rosebud shows, but she’s come into her own in Chickens. She tugs heart strings as the drudging farmwife, afraid to lose the farm, terrified her husband is already gone.

The other four actors are chickens, with ridiculous neck and feet movements that are reminiscent of true chicken behaviour. Tim Hildebrand stands out as Alphonso, the cocky adolescent rooster who swaggers onto the farm to show shy His Nibs (Joel Stephanson) how it’s really done with the hens (Lauren de Graaf and Brynn Linsey). The new-father glow Alphonso displays when his hen lays a record-sized egg is, all by itself, worth the price of the ticket.

Terrilee Shannon, costume designer, put the chickens, not in large feathered costumes, but in street clothes. Shannon told me that, after scouring the dialogue for details like red legs and shaved head, she researched the chickens’ actual breeds and coloring, then looked for modern fashions that replicate the appearance of those breeds. The images she’s created are remarkable.

The music of Chickens is also a character of its own. Playwright Lucia Frangione, and composers Lewis Frere, Royal Sproule, Mark Lewandowski and Jason Bertsch use music in a dozen overt and subtle ways. The music tells the story, it carries the story – and it is the story.

I was watching for how the storyline would end: would Pal and Liza save their farm – and their marriage? My companion didn’t pay much attention to the plot, she admitted; she just enjoyed the chickens’ antics.

Whether you track the storyline or just enjoy the hilarity, Chickens will give you a fun summer outing. Matinee and evening shows include a meal, and run until Aug. 30. Go to www.rosebudtheatre.com or 1-800-267-7553 for tickets.