Not scared to be chicken

Ethel Heihei is a personage of coquettish charm and breath-taking agility. She is inquisitive and independent-minded, yet not impervious to flattery.

She is a dominant presence in an interview with the members of the theatrical troupe Theatre Beating, conducted in the sunshine on the grass outside their rehearsal hall.

She is also a chicken, the eponymous star of The Magic Chicken, a rollicking confection of slapstick for the whole brood, which opens at the Herald Theatre this weekend.

Ethel Heihei is a cunningly crafted puppet, artfully constructed from all manner of "grandmother garments", including a brassiere, petticoat, glove and shawl. She is brought to life by puppeteer (or puppet ninja as his colleagues describe him) Oly Smart.

Clustered around their leading lady are actors Barnie Duncan and Trygve Wakenshaw, and director Geoff Pinfield.

This is the troupe behind the highly successful and deliciously titled Happy Hour For Miserable Children. Happy Hour, their first play, won them Best Comedy at this year's Fringe Festival.

Their second, The Magic Chicken, debuted at the Comedy Festival and now returns for a summer season.

"We had just had a storming success with Happy Hour," says Wakenshaw. "We were sitting in a cafe in Wellington, faced with the forms for the 2004 Comedy Festival, which asked what is your show about?"

"We always knew our next show had to be about chickens," says Duncan. "Chickens, anti-gravity eggs and restaurants.

"I've always had a thing about chickens - I can sit for ages and look at chickens. They are quite comedic - so stroppy and prissy, and roosters are just hilarious.

"People even give me chicken things. I'm also a vegetarian and I have an issue with battery farming. There were lots of reasons."

Pinfield chimes in, "We also stumbled across a troupe of wild mountain chickens on Mt Eden, which were great to watch."

"Wild mountain chickens?" asks a bemused Wakenshaw.

Wakenshaw, Duncan and Pinfield had already created a pair of Laurel and Hardy-esque characters, Toot and Collins, in Happy Hour. The Magic Chicken reprises the characters, but in a new situation, with a new set of pratfalls.

The trio signed up actor Mark Clare, puppeteer "Smart" and musicians Andrew McMillan and John Bell; and Ethel started life as a firewood sack with a traffic cone nose.

The troupe may be channelling the spirit of vaudeville, but they are no penny arcade players. Their shows are choreographed with meticulous detail, every step accounted for, as rigorous as any ballet, in the words of director Pinfield.

"Devising the gags and coming up with the ideas is messy, but once we've done that we clean it up. There's a difference between telling a joke and telling a joke well, and the humour comes across so much more when it is tight."

"The Magic Chicken is Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Ren and Stimpy, vaudeville, and very Muppety," says Duncan. "It's hard to describe this show to kids - they don't know those reference points."

"But it appeals to their sort of logic," says Wakenshaw. "It's like a live cartoon. And this is not the type of show you need theatre etiquette for."

"Screaming kids are great; screaming parents are great," adds Pinfield. "And kids love the fact that we throw water, we throw food, we throw knives, walk with scissors, put our hands in the toaster, all the things you are not allowed to do. It's naughty, anarchic and fun.

"Kids know when they are being patronised. They are the harshest critics. If they are bored, you know about it. If they love it, you know about it. They are not conditioned to sit by and clap politely.

"When they are being silent you know it is not because they are being polite - it's because they are transfixed.

"I sat up the back near two surly 13-year-olds in one of the last performances of Happy Hour," says Pinfield. "At the end, one turned to the other and said that was [expletive] funny. The best audiences are loud, giggly and happy."

Theatre Beating have dreams of taking The Magic Chicken on the road, playing to rural and small-town, family audiences.

In the meantime, they invite audiences to unleash the naughty child within and come and meet Ethel.

Performance

* What: The Magic Chicken

* Where and when: Herald Theatre, Saturday to Dec 5