Tormenting the Hen

From the bucolic hinterlands of rural Massachusetts comes a disquieting new dramedy from "Dipso" director Teddy Collatos. Shot for a pittance in only six days, "Tormenting the Hen" is a caustic satire of city mice in the world of country mice, where well-meaning cosmopolites clash with strange townsfolk in country homes, black-box theaters, backyards, and local pubs. Invited by a dippy, well-meaning curator type (Josephine Decker), playwright Claire (Dameka Hayes) is spirited away to an artists' retreat to present her latest work, a political one-act about race, resentment, and masculinity. Accompanied by her fiance, Monica (Carolina Monnerat), the weekend begins in earnest as a welcome getaway for the harried pair, until an unexpected visit from town weirdo Mutty (Matt Shaw) casts a threatening pall on their romantic idyll. While Claire plays babysitter to a duo of difficult performers - Joel (Brian H. Brooks) and Adam (David Malinsky) - Monica attempts to maintain her sanity despite her lover's decreasing attentions and her neighbor's increasing proximity. Each woman struggles to preserve her autonomy in an increasingly hostile milieu, building to a soul-shaking climax that offers no easy answers for character and viewer alike.