Happy New

by Brendan Cowell

'People don’t really accept chickens, which is wrong, ‘cos we invented the pecking order.'

The 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?

Brendan Cowell is a multi-award-winning and BAFTA-nominated playwright and screenwriter from Australia. After an acclaimed, extended run at the Old Red Lion in 2012, Happy New received its West End début in June 2013 at Trafalgar Studios 2.

‘…by general agreement, the leading light among stage writers of his generation…’ Sun Herald, Sydney

‘Brendan Cowell has a fresh and distinctive voice and he approaches familiar subjects – sibling relations, infidelity – from startling and original angles.’ Sunday Age, Melbourne