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Harrower's Scottish masterpiece heads for Melbourne and Adelaide*

Playwright David Harrower’s reputation as one of the finest contemporary Scottish dramatists was established with Knives in Hens at its premiere in 1995. Now Melbourne audiences will have a chance to see this haunting meditation on how we define our world, as Geordie Brookman (State Theatre Company of South Australia’s Associate Director) directs the Melbourne mainstage debut of Knives in Hens — starring Rob Menzies, Daniel Spielman and Kate Box — at the Malthouse Theatre from 31 July to 22 August.

Set in a harsh and unforgiving rural landscape, Knives in Hens is a potent story of lust, betrayal and murder. It tells of a young woman, trapped by marriage to Pony Williams in a closed and superstitious community. She develops an intense relationship with the reviled village miller. Her key to emancipation is language as the miller teaches her the written word and thereby a means to expression and access to a world outside of blind faith.

Darkly erotic visions and powerfully lyrical language combine to make this a seductive tale of solitude, sexuality and awakenings. Harrower’s primitive cadences and utterances create a pastoral poem which taps into a more elemental psyche, or, as The Guardian described: “Like a dream, Knives in Hens is a play you feel. Articulation comes later and is never adequate.”

Knives and Hens has been produced across the world as the most widely restaged Scottish play since Peter Pan. Melbourne audiences last saw Harrower’s work in 2008 with the critically acclaimed season of Blackbird – winner of the 2007 Olivier award.

Director Geordie Brookman says: “Knives in Hens has stayed embedded in my head ever since I read it five years ago. Haunting and poetic, the play is an audacious attempt to explore the power of knowledge, I’m particularly excited to be approaching the play in a co-production with Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, one of the country’s most exciting and innovative arts companies.”

Dan Spielman returns to Melbourne stages after four years in Sydney with the inaugural actors company at the STC to play the Village Miller. Rob Menzies, last seen in Moving Target at the Malthouse, plays Pony Williams, with Kate Box, recently seen in The Wonderful World of Dissocia at the Sydney Theatre Company as the young woman.

Knives in Hens will perform at Adelaide’s Festival Centre from 26 August to 12 September.

*Based on media release issued by Malthouse Theatre.