Knives in Hens - (Modern Classics) by David Harrower (Paperback)

About the Book

A fable that looks at the transformative power of knowledge and emerging consciousness as a small community moves from a rural to an urban/industrial setting.

Book Synopsis

The village has lied. William has lied. It is not because I am undeserving. Not because I am young and they are old. God has given them nothing. I know this now.

Knives in Hens is a brutal fable set in a timeless spartan rural community. First staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in June 1995, before transferring to the Bush Theatre, London, in November 1995, the play was playwright David Harrower's first professionally produced work. It has been staged in twenty-five countries around the world and is widely acknowledged as a modern Scottish classic.

A remarkable play about the transformative power of knowledge and an emerging consciousness as the world moves from rural to the urban and industrial.

With an introduction by Mark Fisher.

Review Quotes

"An outstanding . . . play, David Harrower's Knives in Hens is set in a God-fearing, pre-industrial world and deals, passionately and intelligently with a woman's discovery of a language that corresponds with her feelings . . . A remarkable debut." --Guardian

"David Harrower's remarkable debut as a professional dramatist creates a haunting, poetic and entirely individual world of its own. I have never seen a play quite like it. . . You leave the theatre in no doubt that you have watched one of the year's most heartening and accomplished debuts. Harrower already seems like a writer built to last." --Daily Telegraph

"David Harrower's brittle, beautiful play Knives in Hens [...] is widely regarded as a masterpiece, and justifiably so. Its unvarnished language is at once coarse and moving." --List

"[A]bsolutely unique, sparsely poetic and deeply affecting. Its care with language (which is a central concern for the young women) is reminiscent of the assiduous selecting (and removing) of words in the work of Harold Pinter . . . [O]ne of the greatest plays in the Scottish theatrical canon" --Sunday Herald

About the Author

David Harrower is a Scottish playwright, based in Glasgow. His first play, Knives in Hens, was premiered at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in 1995. Subsequent plays include Kill the Old Torture Their Young, Presence, Dark Earth, Blackbird, and 365. Harrower has also written adaptations including The Chrysalids, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Ivanov, and Woyzeck. Translations include The Girl on the Sofa, a translation of the Jon Fosse play as well as Schiller's Romantic tragedy Mary Stuart.