Chicken!: New revised 2020 version

By Mark Wheeller

New revised 2020 version

It's Christmas. Tammy and Chris, cousins and best mates, are both thrilled to get cool new bikes. Give or take the odd unworn cycle helmet everything is great... that is until one morning when Chris has a puncture and Tammy agrees to walk with him. They’re late and in a hurry. They decide to race. Chris runs out across a busy main road and then flips open his smart phone to dare Tammy to do the same in front of a fast-approaching car...

Chicken! has been performed 5,876 times, averaging nearly one performance a day since the original version was written in 1992.

This new 2020 version includes many updated references, a brand-new foreword by Adrian New, of StopWatch Theatre Company, more funny lines and a new decision for the actor to make at the end!

Suitable for: Key Stage 2 audience. Key Stage 3, 4, 5 performance, BTEC course as part of the TiE unit (a companion DVD/download showing the complete professional TiE programme is also available)


Duration: 45 minutes approximately


Cast: The play has 9 main characters: 4 male, 3 females and 2+ of either sex.
It can be doubled by 2m 2f 

“A powerful play with a surprising twist.”

Charles Vance, Amateur Stage



“[The] performance was lively, skilful, well-paced and enjoyable. Excellent participation, explored lots of issues pertinent to Year 7, including bullying and peer pressure as well as road safety.”

Mrs S Scantlebury, Head of Year 7, Chipping Norton School, Oxfordshire

• Language: English
• Publisher: Salamander Street Ltd.
• Release date: Jul 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913630324

Mark Wheeller

Mark Wheeller began writing whilst a student at Marlwood Comprehensive School, Bristol. After teaching drama for thirty-six years he retired in July 2015 to concentrate on writing and delivering Drama/Theatre workshops to students and teachers across the world. Mark is one of the most-performed playwrights in Britain. Too Much Punch For Judy has been performed over 6,000 times and Chicken nearly 6,000. Missing Dan Nolan and Hard to Swallow are both set texts for the GSCE Drama 9-1 exams. His work has been a staple part of the Drama curriculum both in the UK and abroad for the past three decades. Professional productions of Hard to Swallow, I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won’t Die and Chicken regularly tour schools and many of Mark’s works are available on DVD, with digital formats forthcoming in late 2020.  His study guides include Drama Schemes, The Story Behind Too Much Punch For Judy, Drama Club & Hard to Swallow – Easy to Digest. He has three children and lives just outside the New Forest, with his wife Rachael, and Labrador, Dusty.

Book preview

First published by dbda in 1992 under the title Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?; Updated and reprinted in 2003; Chicken! was first published in 2006 and further revised and updated in 2014 & 2017 ISBN 9781902843193

This new edition (revised and updated again) first published in 2020 by Salamander Street Ltd., 272 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JR ([e-mail])

Chicken! © Mark Wheeller, 1992-2017, 2020

All rights reserved.

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before rehearsal to MBA Literary Agents Ltd, 62 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DW (attn: Sophie Gorell Barnes).

No performance may be given unless a license has been obtained.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or binding or by any means (print, electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

PB ISBN: 9781913630331

E ISBN: 9781913630324

Cover and text design by Konstantinos Vasdekis

Printed and bound in Great Britain

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Further copies of this publication can be purchased from www.salamanderstreet.com

CONTENTS

Foreword by Adrian New

Introduction

Review of the StopWatch production by Mark Wheeller

Reflections by Chris Gilfoy

Chicken!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to StopWatchTheatre Company for their outstanding production of this play, since 1992, and now to Wizard Theatre who continue professional performances in the UK.

Cassie Eccles; Chris Gilfoy; Lizzie Hole; Kirsty Housley; Matthew Simpson; Samantha Phillips; Paul Sturrock; Carley Wilson; all students at Oaklands Community School who assisted in developing the original opening section, improvised from my storyline. This scene was re-written by Chris Gilfoy, Matthew Simpson, Samantha Phillips and Mark Wheeller, for the 2003 version of the play.

I should also like to thank Karmin Arnold, Lewis Evans, Ross Hobby & Emily Moulsdale for their help in updating the 2017 version of the script during the rehearsal process for the Victoria Shanghai Academy performances.

Headteacher and staff at Sinclair and Oakwood Middle Schools, Southampton (1998).

Rachael Wheeller, for numerous proofreadings and general tolerance.

John Askew, Local Authority Road Safety Officers’ Association.

Carol Bagshaw, Hampshire County Council.

Martin Ryves, Headteacher, Worton Junior School.

Adrian New and Steven Pearce and the actors from StopWatch Theatre Company.

Leon Hamilton and all those at Wizard Theatre.

Dr. Peter Hollis, formerly Headteacher, Oaklands Community School.

Dbda who later became Zinc for making the play available in the first place and through until 2020.

Thanks to George Spender and those in the Salamander Street team for their efforts to extend the reach of my plays.

Sophie Gorell Barnes of MBA Literary Agents for their continued support of my work.

Foreword

I have worked in Theatre in Education for thirty years, and Chicken! has been a part of that for twenty-eight of them.

StopWatch