Written by Kerrie Draghi
Butterfly Eye Productions’ new totally absurd and slightly horrific Extravaganza comes to Upstairs at the Gatehouse for its premiere run this July.
Darling, I Think I’m Turning Into a Chicken is an absurdist and darkly comedic exploration of generational trauma, transformation, and survival.
The bold, imaginative, and physical, text-led production explores how illness is not only biological, but emotional, social, and generational, and what happens when loss becomes the air a family breathes. The play asks what it takes to break cycles of inheritance, and whether healing is ever truly possible.
Florence (played by India Rose Olsen) has everything she’s ever wanted: a fiancée, a thriving career, and a perfect home. But when she begins to grow feathers, her carefully constructed life starts to unravel. As her transformation worsens, and begins to threaten her life, Florence discovers she is not alone: her estranged family are changing too. To survive, she must confront the past she has spent a lifetime avoiding.
Read below for an interview with India Rose Olsen, writer, lead actor and co-director.
Kerrie: Hi India. Let’s start with a short biography and the major themes in your play Darling, I Think I’m Turning into a Chicken.
India: I’m a British-Australian artist and I’ve been really inspired by my family. My dad was in the industry – the TV show 2.4 Children in the 80s and 90s. My mum was a ballerina and actress. They both passed away when I was quite young. They really inspired me to create a new foundation for myself through art. I always played when I was a kid. I loved being in the imaginary world and theatre. Art for me is not just about creation. It’s about surviving.
K: One theme that I’ve seen recently in films like Greta Gerwig’s Ladybird is about the relationship between a mother and daughter, which hasn’t historically been explored that much. Could you talk about that?
I: A lot of my family passed away from cancer. This play is a response to generational trauma. In the world of theatre, you can figure out how to address things without actually addressing them in reality. I was curious to see how the family I’ve created in my play could address this and what their individual survival mechanisms are.
K: What are some of your influences?
I: My language comes from the singer Florence and the Machine. Building up to the rehearsal process, I was inspired by film-maker Chloé Zhao (Hamnet). She works on dreamwork and grief and how we can bring people together through that. I’m really inspired by people like Greta Gerwig, Chloé Zhao and all these leaders that are showing real emotions, real relationships in a holistic way. I really like to approach art in that way. In my play, there’s not just music or words. There’s feathers, dance and all these different metaphors. That’s what I really love about theatre. It’s like this oracle that you can say anything with.
K: How is theatre different from other kinds of artforms?
I: It’s a sacred artform. It’s live, it’s human. I love theatre because it’s so embodied and it’s so uncut that you are forced to face your own humanity. There’s something about theatre that hits a core part of humanity that can relate to so many people. Someone once told the voice artist, Patsy Rodenburg, they didn’t like theatre because a sound they heard reminded them of when they found out their daughter was murdered. That shows theatre hits a core part of humanity. You can’t press pause on that.
K: How did the process of making your play Darling, I Think I’m Turning into a Chicken impact your own life?
I: It’s down to the embodiment of theatre as it’s such an expressive artform. You go in and you are completely active in that space, completely present. You use every cell in your body in front of a live audience. I try to incorporate theatre methodologies like devising. Devising is going through play and we don’t necessarily know what we’re going to find but we have something that we’re looking for. And we collaborate together with this exercise we do. That informs the whole opening scene of the play.
K: How was the process of making that with the group?
I: It was beautiful but we were hit with many challenges. We had four people with broken bones going into this. Also, this huge train crash that happened in London. There was a huge accident that happened yesterday so we had to cancel yesterday’s show. We had six weeks to complete this piece, a really short time. Along the journey, I wanted to start from the body in. To see what came out before we started to think about what we were going to say. That was a really beautiful process.
K: Your theatre company, Butterfly Eye Productions, is woman-led. Why is that important for you?
I: We don’t talk about a lot of women’s issues in society. There’s this weird thing about periods. It’s the most natural thing in the world and we’re still not able to talk about it. Within this industry, women are working our way up and we’re getting there but we’re still not represented in the way that we need to be. We actually haven’t heard female stories enough.
Like, I’ve had medical things in the past. I had a tumour in my right eye and that’s why I had to have my eye removed a couple years ago. I literally went into a hospital for it and a doctor said “Okay! Take off your shirt.” That happens in the play. I personally don’t feel supported in the medical industry enough. I have PCOS, a hormonal disorder, and the first thing doctors say when you have it is “You have to take the birth control pill.” And the pill makes me go crazy! I know a lot of women suffer from this. Theatre and film is where you have a platform to change the narrative. That’s what I want to do with Butterfly Eye. It’s a larger project where we change the whole patriarchal system, and move towards the matriarchal working cycle.
K: I would love for you to tell me more about that.
I: The next project is about female rage, devised and co-written through women’s circles. I want to work in cycles – two weeks of intense work, then a week off for rest and reflection. I’m curious about working with the moon and whether women’s cycles can sync to deepen our connection. We’d use rage rooms to explore what we’ve experienced. I want the company to shift how society works – people feel far from their humanity and I want to use art to bring that back. So many people suffer from dysfunctional families. When we get ruptured at home, it can reset our whole life. It reset mine. I want to bring people together and say what needs to be said.
K: Why did you choose the name Butterfly Eye for your company?
I: Butterflies appear for me often, especially on my mum’s anniversary. When I had my prosthetic eye fitted, I created a design for it to have a butterfly in the eye. The name represents transforming the way we view things. I want us to transform the way we are viewing things. Society is becoming so much more fast-paced. We always have to have our phones on us. With theatre, you have to turn it off.
Darling, I Think I’m Turning Into a Chicken is a part of Camden Fringe Festival and will be showing on 25th and 26th August at The Cockpit. Tickets can be purchased here.
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