Chicken Dust

Oh this ain't a farm. This is a loading dock. No such things as farms anymore, not around here.

A chicken farm in rural England. New boy Tim has just arrived for his first shift. The job is pretty simple: grab chickens seven at a time by their legs and ram them into cages for shipping. All of this in the dark, stomping around in ankle-deep chicken shit, muck and mud.

Tim's teammates are old-timers, with cigarettes dangling from their lips and pantyhose up their arms to protect their skin. Feathers cling to clothes. This band of survivors doesn't want much: just to stay in the countryside, catch the chickens, and earn the best living they can.

But the chickens are dying, rotting from the inside-out like hot fruit just hours after they arrive. As disease spreads and pressure mounts, enter Oscar, the meticulous poultry inspector . . .

A hard-hitting exploration of the human cost of our enormous appetite for cheap meat.

Winner of the Curve Leicester's Playwriting Competition and first seen as a staged reading at the Finborough Theatre's annualVibrant: A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, Chicken Dust marks the full-length debut of a new playwright. It received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre on 1 March 2015.

Ben Weatherill trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and was part of the Royal Court Theatre's Young Writer's Programme and Invitation Only Group. He is currently the Literary Manager at the Old Red Lion Theatre, as well as Playwright-in-Residence at Curve Leicester. Chicken Dust is Ben Weatherill's professional debut. His playTastes like Chicken was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize 2013 and his short playThe Next Five Years was seen at Theatre503. His first television pilot, Scorned, reached the final stage of BBC WritersRoom Script Room 7 competition. Subsequently, he was invited to join the Skylight group at this year's BBC Writer's Festival.