The Chicken Trial

In 2008, Swedish artist Makode Linde was taken to court for releasing a hatful of live painted chickens into a nightclub as part of a magic trick and DJ set. It’s perhaps the more whimsical of his controversies – his 2012 piece 'Painful Cake' explored the white consumption of black culture through a blood-filled human cake that participants were invited to cut into. But for animal rights campaigners, it’s those chickens on the dancefloor that were a serious no-no.

Playwright Johanna Koljonen’s piece is a "documentary fantasy" – blending verbatim transcripts of the actual trial with imagined character insights, asking questions about the ethics of art and our relationships with animals: how can a few ruffled feathers on a dance floor be condemned, one character asks, given the sheer scale and brutality of industrial farming? Would the act have been more palatable had it been in a gallery rather than a club?

Director Fredrik Lundqvist pulls some captivating theatrical tricks out of his hat, visualising Koljonen’s blend of reality and fantasy with slow-motion set pieces, warped sound design and a kind of trippy, anthropomorphic disco vibe: chicken suits, a live dog and a series of carnivalesque hats all enliven the dry court proceedings and invite us to imagine those incongruously clucking, feathered guests in that very human environment.

Tonally uncertain at points and cooped up in a slightly cramped venue, the play doesn’t quite fly – but it’s an engaging, rigorous and unashamedly quirky take on a bizarre chapter of art history.