Chicken!. Mark Wheeller

      Introduction

      If, in 1986, had I set out to write my “hit” play it would not have been a road safety play. No one is more surprised than me, at the enormous success achieved by Too Much Punch for Judy which was initially a twenty-minute end section to a youth theatre play, ostensibly about alcohol abuse. Too Much Punch toured in the UK from 1987 through to 2018.¹ In 1991, I was awarded the Prince Michael of Kent Special Award for Services to Road Safety Education. It was, in part, this award which inspired the idea of a play for an upper Junior/lower Secondary age group.

      I contacted a number of Road Safety Officers across the country to ask their advice as to what sort of issues such a play should cover. An officer in Hertfordshire suggested that I hold a meeting with teachers from the schools where we planned to perform the play, to find out what their concerns were.

      I followed his advice and in the meeting, I discovered great enthusiasm on the part of these teachers for the idea of a new road safety play. Issues were put forward, many that I had not previously considered. One in particular was common to both schools who were part of the trial for the play – the game of “Chicken”, where children dare each other to cross the road in front of oncoming traffic. There had already been a death as a result of this problem at one of the schools.

      I have to confess that I had gone into this meeting expecting the major issue to be the use of cycle helmets, although I was aware that Hampshire had done a lot of work promoting cycle safety. It transpired that cycle safety issues were far broader than just cycle helmets (although still only a small number of children actually wore them), and the teachers wanted me to try and incorporate a range of basic “safety tips” for cyclists.

      I returned home and worked on an outline story for the play, which my Monday afternoon extracurricular drama group would improvise the following week. I can’t say that I spent hours slaving over a hot word processor, but I thought about it a lot. Gradually, the story took shape. I decided to use the idea I originally had… that of the cycle helmet story, as a red herring, leading the audience to believe that one of the two central characters would be killed as a result of refusing to wear the helmet. Then, at the end there would be a twist, leading to the other character being hit by a car after being called a “chicken”.

      I showed the Monday group on outline of this idea and asked them to devise a lively scene showing the lead up to a Christmas Day on which two friends (later cousins) were both given a bike and a helmet. By the end of the scene, their differing attitudes to cycle helmets should be apparent.

      The group came back with two improvisations. The best bits from each formed the opening scene for this new play. I was delighted, it was pacey and full of energy! Although characters and ideas were developed in subsequent meetings, with time running out, I took on the task of writing the remaining scenes in the tradition of slaving over a hot word processor.

      When my rather hurried draft of my script had been printed we had precisely two weeks until our first performance. We booked a room and rehearsed almost every evening during that period. Everyone worked unbelievably hard and lots of imaginative ideas helped to present this play in the round (which was new to all the cast and greeted with much suspicion!) and (as was intended with this multi-location/zero budget play) without the use of any props… except two cycle helmets!

      I felt that the play needed some kind of follow-up. However, we did not have time to devise and rehearse a workshop. Hampshire County Council Road Safety Unit and the County Road Safety Officers Association came to our rescue by funding our school’s (then) resident StopWatch Theatre Company, to devise and run participatory workshops for all the 8-12 year olds who were to see the play.

      The title was the final thing to happen. Our working title was Dean and Danny, the original names of the two central characters. This was hated by almost all who heard it. When I come up with Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? (the title of this play in its first incarnation) I almost dismissed it… but slowly it grew on me and, when other people thought it was “right”, the Monday group gave their seal of approval and so the title was finally adopted (and before it was shortened it was lengthened to become Why Did The Chicken Cross the Road? Because Some Stupid Turkey Egged Her On!)

      The performances went down really well. The children were gripped and many of the adults who came to see it (we encouraged parents to attend) were in tears! A large number of Road Safety Officers, from all over England came to see the production. All left wanting it to be presented professionally in their areas – except, bizarrely, those in our own county of Hampshire who, ironically, remain to this day one of the very few English counties never to have used the play!

      StopWatch Theatre Company expressed a serious interest in touring the play professionally. Their ideas, coupled with various hints I had gleaned from Road Safety Officers following the initial performances, led to the second and much more developed version of this play being written.

      Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? has almost outdone its predecessor Too Much Punch For Judy. It has been performed magnificently by StopWatch Theatre Company. In total, it has been performed 5,876 times (most of them by StopWatch) between 1992 and 2020, an average of nearly one every day since it was written – a better average than Punch! Their outstanding productions have helped the play to gain a reputation as one that is both educational in content and stylistically interesting to drama teachers and their students.

      Five further radical rewrites have occurred since 1992. In 1997, StopWatch felt that the 8-13 year-olds of 1997 were more “grown up” than the 8-13 year-olds of 1992. Also we needed to encourage girls to empathise more closely with the central characters. So, Matt became Tammy! Matt’s girlfriend became Tammy’s boyfriend. Matt’s mum became Tammy’s dad so that the play would still work for a cast of 2 male and 2 female.