The House with Chicken Legs: Peck-uliar tales

With its quirky folk-tale stories and imaginative use of puppetry, Les Enfants Terribles has become a regular case study in the drama classroom. Alongside some stunning immersive shows, the vibrant theatre company prides itself on visiting schools, providing information packs for drama teachers, and most recently releasing a virtual ‘Curiosity Index’ rammed full of videos and other resources for all their shows.

So, it was no surprise that there was a swathe of interest when LET announced its first ever production adapted from a children's book. We have been told to expect the unexpected from this adventurous theatre company, and The House With Chicken Legs has lived up to this prediction.

This show does so many things right. It tells a story that spurs the imagination and interest of the young people who see it. Travelling far and wide across the UK, the production is reaching communities in areas who do not have access to high-quality theatre on a regular basis. The plot itself is rooted in diverse storytelling, with the central plotline centred around a black girl and her grandma. Above all, the show is really good fun, and stretches the limits of what we can do through theatre. This story may be designed as a show for young people and families, but at its heart it is brilliant theatre that would appeal to all, making it even more exciting to explore with bright-eyed students.

How it all began

Thrilled at the prospect of Sophie Anderson's book being adapted for stage – and curious about the various limits that may present – I spoke to some of the team behind the production at LET about what they chose the story in the first place. ‘This kind of old Slavic folklore is very up out street,’ says artistic director Oliver Lansley. ‘We like morality tales and I think I have always loved European folklore stories because they are dark and weird, but it also very human.’

The story follows Marinka, a teenage girl who is trying to find her place in the world. She lives in a house with chicken legs with her grandmother, who is a Baba Yaga (essentially a character that western culture would know as a witch). This wonderful old lady helps guide souls into the afterlife – a role that Marinka is destined to take up. Lansley adds that throughout the story ‘Marinka, like every teenager, is struggling with her sense of destiny and who she wants to be and what she wants to do. She is rebelling against all of that.’ The show talks about death and loss, and moving on, but it also touches on climate change, and themes of identity.

In discussion with Lansley, it becomes apparent that this story is designed to be a gateway show for young people to start experiencing the arts. Les Enfants have noted that so many modern productions attempt to shelter its young audiences, but Lansley argues that in doing so we could ‘shield them from the complexities of life’. ‘This book is about death, and it tells the truth. Particularly over the last for years with the pandemic, young people and children are dealing with issues they have not faced before; unless you give them a language to be able to communicate with, it can end up being far more traumatic for them,’ he explains.

Hurdles along the way

To create the show, LET worked with composer and regular collaborator Alexander Wolfe to form the score. ‘We decided early on that it needed that musical energy to it,’ says Lansley. ‘When you are putting a novel on stage, you must make all these leaps of story and I think music really helps you to do that. You can do so much in song that would feel clunky in other ways.’

However, the adaptation was not all smooth sailing. For a start, throughout the story the house often gets up on enormous chicken legs and runs across the globe, a process that is inevitably difficult to stage. Lansley admits it was hard to convey all the supernatural elements on stage, but emphasises that things that push the creative team are a positive. ‘A show requires challenges in its creative process, as that is what makes LET's productions so exciting and unique,’ he says, arguing that overcoming hurdles is where productions find creative gems. These elements can often end up evolving into key tenants of a show. ‘I remember my drama teacher always used to say: “when you don't have any restrictions, you don't have to find creative solutions”,’ Lansley says. This ties into LET's origin story, when it became a creative and imaginative group of performers with no pool of funding, but with a load of ingenuity. Prior to gaining its stellar reputation, LET hosted shows at the Edinburgh Fringe with no resources, but it developed a resourceful reputation that the group has retained today despite slowly gaining more support and funding.

Appealing to young people

It is important when you are designing a show for young people not to dumb it down or flatten the story, because (as teachers well know) students can see straight through it. ‘The key is not to be cynical about it and tell the story as truthfully as possible. The thing that young people can spot a mile off is artifice. They have an antenna for authenticity. The important thing is that you tell the story,’ says Lansley.

This point is also true when it comes to a lack of representation in theatre. ‘It's important for young people across the UK to see themselves reflected on stage,’ Lansley adds to my point. ‘I think that is the only way as a young person you are able to engage with the creative arts.’ Sometimes given lack of arts funding and the cost-of-living crisis, the only time a young person may go and see a piece of theatre is on a school trip. It is crucial then that in these minimal experiences they see themselves reflected on stage. As Lansley puts it: ‘if all the people they see on the stage come from a different world to them, then the impact is not the same’.

Drama teaches empathy. It allows students to put themselves in the stories of other people and learn about others. It gives young people the confidence to stand up in a room and speak or go for a job interview in the future. ‘There are so many soft skills that come with the arts and when that is taken away it has a huge impact on the whole of society,’ Lansley adds. The work that LET is doing in this new production encourages young people to find their own voice, showing them other young people who are doing the same thing. The main character is overcoming relatable struggles, with some excitement and charm that comes from the supernatural element of the show.

Collaborative creativity

The set design is intricate and believable, made by creative and set designer Jasmine Swan. Lansley tells me that upon watching, many audience members have said that it looks like you can walk onto the set and start living in the house. Each element of the production – the music, design, puppets and projection – is intertwined with each other, so the LET team had to make sure that there was an open dialogue between all the creatives involved. Lansley assures me that although a difficult thing to guarantee, this was high on the agenda of the creative team when adapting this novel.

It is exciting to see LET flexing its creative muscles in this direction. Hopefully more adaptations from children's books will follow, but in the meantime, this is a production and company well worth exploring.

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