Happy New by Brendan Cowell at Trafalgar Studios 2

Happy New by Brendan Cowell, at the Trafalgar Studio 2 Theatre, from 4 to 29 June 2013.

Directed by Robert Shaw and designed by Lily Arnold, the cast includes Lisa Dillon, Joel Samuels, William Troughton.

The Australian outback. Danny and Lyle were abandoned by their mother in the chicken coop. Discovered after several months, surrounded only by hens, feathers, pecking and clawing, they are taken into care. Over the years, they've become media celebrities. Sultry TV journo Pru has entered their lives. But now, society is bored with them. It's New Year's Eve. Tomorrow, Danny and Lyle must leave care and step out into the world alone for the first time. But are childhood traumas coming home to roost? What's Pru hatching? Why's she egging them on? Will they ever eat Nando's again? And of course, which came first?

(Happy New had a run at the Old Red Lion Theatre, a fringe venue in Angel, North London in early 2012)

- by Darren Dalglish