The Hen House

Sisters Josipa Draisma and Mara Kneževic crash on to the stage in this wild, funny musical that celebrates the thousands of migrants, many highly educated, skilled and experienced, who toiled in menial jobs to make a living in their new country. That the play is set in the 70s does not detract from the subtle message that the same thing happens today …

Written with their brother Šime Kneževic, with music composed by Zeljko Papic, the play was inspired by reflecting on the experiences of their late grandmother, Bernarda Papic, a Croatian migrant who worked in a chicken factory for over 30 years.

Based on those reflections, and a multitude of stories from female migrant factory workers from Western Sydney, they created Pavica and Mila, best friends striving to support themselves, and in Pavica’s case, a family, in Australia in the 1970s. They are friends, but they are very different!

Pavica loves her job and works hard, so much so that she is singled out by “bossman” to be promoted to “forelady”, a job which Pavica takes very seriously – even though the “bossman” shows her little respect and never pronounces her name properly.  Mila, on the other hand, hates the stinking factory and the suggestive advances made to her by the “bossman”.

They tell the story in fast, foot thumping songs and graphic descriptions: a day’s work at the factory, the regulations they must follow, their busy lives, their back stories, the other women at the factory. The problem of explaining instructions given in English to women from many different language backgrounds. The unfairness of the being paid less than men working at the same job.

They make the descriptions loud and funny. For example, as Pavica describes almost beatifically, the awful routine of slaughtering, plucking, gutting, cleaning and packaging the chicken carcasses, Mila rants in repetitive expletives about the shrieking chickens, the stench, the screeching machinery and the tenosynovitis that plagues the women.

While Pavica goes home to feed Kentucky Fried Chicken to her children and an out-of-work husband, Mila is at home alone writing to the husband she hasn’t seen for three years.

When Pavica is demoted because she hesitates to fire her Italian friend Rossetta because she wasn’t wearing the regulation hat, Mila uses the situation to instigate a strike.

Underlying the fun and pace are clear and explicit messages about hardship and injustice. That they can find the humour and share it so joyously and uproariously says much about the strength and resilience of our migrant Australians.

Draisma and Kneževic talk and dance and move with an energy that seems inexhaustible!  Backed by musicians Sarah Homeh, Hayley Chan, Sil Jin and Gwyneth Jansen, they create a sense of unity and togetherness that pervades every song, every story. There is power in their togetherness – and their love of performance – that is invigorating, inclusive and optimistic. Try to see it as it goes on tour throughout September to the Camden Civic Centre, Orange Civic Centre, The Art House Wyong and the Concourse Pavilion Chatswood.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Anna Kucera