FRIGID: Petunia and Chicken – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Petunia and Chicken at the 2014 FRIGID New York theater festival is a marvel. It’s creators and performers, Carrie Brown and Karim Muasher of Animal Engine theater company, paint scenic vistas, portray numerous characters, and create a soundtrack of music and sound effects to tell a beautiful story inspired by the writings of Willa Cather. All the while, it’s just the two of them on stage with a modicum props: a shawl, a bowler hat, and two spoons.
Set in Nebraska at a time when fields were plowed with oxen and records played on hand cranked phonographs, Petunia and Chicken is a love story between a recent immigrant (Petunia) and a Midwestern adventurer (Chicken). Brown and Muasher seamlessly transform from character to character to inanimate object and back to character. The location, people, and action of each scene are vividly portrayed. That’s no easy task considering the multitude of characters–ranging from Chicken and Petunia as children and adults to animals and a lengthy list of supporting characters–and locales as varied as fields of grain, apple orchards, carnivals, Alaskan tundras, and Egyptian pyramids. Most remarkable are scenes depicting simple tasks with exquisite clarity such as cooking eggs, washing laundry, chopping a tree, or buying a sack of animal feed.
This performance is deceptively simple. It doesn’t include fancy technology, complicated costumes, or edgy concepts. It is a feat of storytelling using old-fashioned physicality and imagination. It is gorgeously wrought and highly recommended.
Public Opinion
There were lots of tears, gratefully shed, at the performance we saw. There were also empty seats, an abomination.
Have you seen Petunia and Chicken? What did you think? Comment below or tweet us at @Maxamoo.
Critics’ Reviews
None yet.
TICKETS
$15.00 (click here to purchase tickets from SmartTix, the official online ticket seller of FRIGID New York)
DATES
Mar 03, 10:15PM
Mar 06, 8:40PM
Mar 08, 3:40PM
LOCATION
Kraine Theater
85 E 4th St, New York City
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RUNNING TIME
One hour, no intermission
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written and performed by Carrie Brown and Karim Muasher
Directed by Melinda Jean Ferraraccio