If Charlotte Ford can catch her breath, so can you.

Fresh off a sold-out run at our Festival, Charlotte Ford brings Chicken, an expressionistic clown play that magnifies our most intimate fears into coliseum-sized spectacles, to Bryn Mawr on Friday, Oct. 1, and Saturday, Oct. 2. Both shows start at 8 PM at Bryn Mawr’s Hepburn Theater in historic Goodhart Hall as part of the Performing Arts Series.

Conceived and written by Ford, Chicken explores how molehills become mountains and kitchen-sink drama becomes gladiatorial bloodbath against a backdrop of pending nuclear annihilation.

“Chicken began two years ago as an exploration of fear, but it has become much more about status and thrill. Those things are connected to fear, for sure (isn’t everything?)–but the piece has definitely evolved from its original spark,” says Ford.

In a Sept. 1 City Paper cover story previewing the Live Arts Festival, A.D. Amorosi wrote that Ford is “one of the bravest local perf-art personages to come along in the last decade.” Chicken was featured on the cover of the issue.

The piece packed the Live Arts Studio during its four-night run at the Festival, which ended last weekend. If you missed it, now you’re in luck.

Tickets to individual events in the Bryn Mawr Performing Arts Series are $20 for the general public, $18 for seniors, $10 for students, $5 for children 12 and under, and free for Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore College students, faculty and staff. Subscription packages offer discounts, mix-and-match ticket flexibility and priority seating. For tickets and further information, visit www.brownpapertickets.com, call the Office for the Arts at 610-526-5210, or visit www.brynmawr.edu/arts.

–Dan Comly

Photo © Jacques-Jean Tiziou