Fat Joe’s Chicken Shack is a play about a football advertising company in London and its impact on the developing world. The play features four young creatives presenting their ideas on how best to use a footballer in an advertisement for football boots.Their man is touted as the best Brazilian footballer in the world about to set the premiership alight.
The story revolves around the moment the advertising agency use the young footballer (whose personality offers a sort of blank canvas) as a Che Guevara-esque revolutionary that can empower the people. This advertisement inspires a young factory worker in Indonesia who attempts to meet the young footballer to ask for his help in improving workers’ rights in the football boot factory. Difficulties inevitably ensue for both parties.
This clash of two worlds plays on the power of advertisement and the inequalities that persists between the elite and the poor, challenging the usual formula of football advertising that attempts to portray the sport as the people’s sport. The play is evocative and the writer and director raise poignant issues. Theatre becomes a means of raising awareness, as well as a source of entertainment.
The show has great potential, yet the cast, being only four strong, require time to excel. This may be because they have relatively little experience, and could improve as the days progress and they become more familiar with the stage in the small theatre room in Surgeons Hall.
The writer and director should be encouraged to inspire budding playwrights to consider the power of theatre to raise social awareness, whilst still remaining entertaining. Catch them soon though, the show only runs until the 11th.
