Matthew DiLoreto returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with Three Chickens Confront Existence, a surreal and darkly comic exploration of life, death, and everything in between. Known for their work with The Blue Man Group and Upright Citizens Brigade, DiLoreto brings a unique energy to the role of Bronseman, one of three chickens facing their fate with wit and wonder.
The show, described as “Waiting for Godot, but with chickens,” dives into existential themes through absurdist humour, emotional depth, and a feathered cast. With rave reviews from The Scotsman and Ed Fest Magazine, it’s a must-see for fans of bold, thought-provoking theatre.
Three Chickens Confront Existence runs from 31st July to 24th August 2025 (not 11th or 18th) at Underbelly Cowgate. Tickets are available here.
You’re starring in Three Chickens Confront Existence at Underbelly Cowgate – what can you tell us about the show?
First off, this is the most human show you’ll ever see starring 3 chickens! It’s funny as hell and it’s sad as hell. It’s a tragic-comedic show that makes the most empathetic mockery of our human condition and our grand attempts to organize ourselves in the service of staving off our temporality. And nowhere near as pretentious as this answer, I promise.
The show blends comedy and tragedy in a surreal setting – how do you approach balancing those emotional shifts as a performer?
One of the most brilliant things about this show—and shows that can make specific absurdity universal—is that the comedy and tragedy are grounded in the same place. There are very few moments in this play where any of us are yucking it up or playing for laughs.
The straighter you play most of it, the funnier it is. And the more grounded you can make the comedy, the more gutting and revelatory the tragedy becomes.
Feeling like all my answers here are going to be painfully pretentious, BUT, the answer to how I approach those tonal shifts: dead seriously.
Your character, Bronseman, is one of three factory-farmed chickens confronting their fate – what drew you to this role?
Well, being obviously somewhat deranged enough to have chosen a life in the arts, I have a DIRE need to understand and apply a higher purpose to life and humanity. Despicably unhealthy, I know. It can supersede almost EVERY aspect of one’s life.
This is Bronseman. Desperate oscillations between one possible purpose to another—at times forgoing personal relationships and basic creature needs like, you know, FOOD (pellets in this case) for this endless seeking? Yeah, I embarrassingly relate.
And the place Bronseman eventually lands; that actually those personal connections he may have been forgoing, they’re as close to a purpose as we’ll ever hope to have? I also relate.
The show touches on themes like mysticism, class inequality, and mortality – which of these themes resonates most with you personally?
I have to pick one?? Gun to my head I’d actually pick one you didn’t mention, and that is Power.
The play is cyclical in structure and one of the cycles covers Power. Especially in this moment in time, where we are seemingly seeing a resurgence of strongmen in leadership positions—and more than that, strongmen adulation from surprising percentages in the populace—I find myself gravitating toward the Power cycle.
Bill (Schaumberg), our writer/director, has masterfully pulled the rug out on the very idea of power and, in what I’d consider the funniest moments of the play, brilliantly calls out how absurdly arbitrary and fleeting Power can be.
You’ve performed with The Blue Man Group and at the Upright Citizens Brigade – how does this production compare to your past work?
There are definitely some similarities! In Blue Man Group, there are 3 characters on stage that are made to be “other” (that is, not human) in order to delve into our silliest humanity. And similarly—and this is my own interpretation of both—they arrive at the conclusion that the human condition is only mitigated through a connection with other humans.
Interestingly, the origins of Three Chickens can be found in a sketch that Bill wrote and we performed at UCB. It was a log giving a Shakespearean monologue about his impending death from being thrown onto a lumberjack’s fire. We learned then the powerful and ridiculously funny things you can point out about our human selves when the character pointing them out is not human.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Three Chickens Confront Existence?
Umm… DO IT is the simple answer.
But if your readers have made it this far, then I’m guessing they’re ok with pretentiousness, so I’ll say: In this incredibly fractured era of growing isolationism, I really think you’ll leave feeling lighter than when you came in; having experienced in a room full of other people this embodied idea that when we face our human condition together, it is both the funniest and most beautiful thing in the universe.
