On the 20th anniversary of its British debut, the play that launched multi-award winning writer Enda Walsh into the proverbial spotlight, Disco Pigs, bursts back onto the London stage at Trafalgar Studios, mixing a no-holds-barred frenzy of energy with all-encompassing bass-fuelled beats. It’s certainly not quiet.
Disco Pigs introduces us to an inseparable double-act: tomboy Runt (Evanna Lynch, best known for her role as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films) and cocksure Pig (Colin Campbell), violent teenagers completely devout to an “us against the world” mentality which immediately pits them against anybody they meet. But as the duo grow up and their dreams start to slide, cracks begin to appear in their united front.
Here’s why we reckon everybody should see it.
The vibrant, violent world of Pig and Runt
Colin Campbell and Evanna Lynch in Disco Pigs at Trafalgar Studios (Photo: Alex Brenner)
Disco Pigs presents Pig and Runt’s dingy life of clubs, pubs and dilapidated streets through the warped eyes of its protagonists, drawing you right into their perspectives through sheer ebullience alone.
Childhood friends and neighbours who grew up together, theirs is a hell-for-leather, consequence-free lifestyle, borne from their mutual neglect on a Cork council estate. Perhaps best demonstrated in the slightly mangled English the two use to speak to one another – don’t go reaching for your street dictionaries straight away, but prepare to acclimatise – their all-out but naïve existence of booze, beats and bravado is by turns shocking but touching, particularly as, unbeknown to one another, their friendship begins to erode away.
The result is a breathtaking blend of dynamism and tenderness: electrifying, horrifying – and shattering.
Lynch and Campbell
Colin Campbell and Evanna Lynch in Disco Pigs at Trafalgar Studios (Photo: Alex Brenner)
Whatever the two-strong cast eat for breakfast every morning, I want some of it; Lynch and Campbell bound around the Trafalgar Studios space with seemingly boundless energy, making full use of the space to whisk us around their council estate in riveting displays of dynamism and, frequently, danger.
But when the dust settles, it’s the sheer tenderness of their performances which shines through in the intimate theatre. You can almost see the cogs move in Pig’s head, feel the pain Runt furtively confesses to, and, with the duo’s whole lives ahead of them, the events which lead to realisation that they won’t be able to live life in the fast lane forever are tough to swallow.
The heart-pounding soundtrack…
Evanna Lynch and Colin Campbell in Disco Pigs at Trafalgar Studios (Photo: Alex Brenner)
An explosive play from start to finish, Disco Pigs is powered by an electrifying soundtrack which potently underscores Pig and Runt’s full-throttle escapades.
Shifting from booming Disco track – say, while petulantly smashing up an off-licence, or beating up a non-local on their turf – to Disco track (with an obligatory interlude for the Baywatch theme), the show poignantly runs the course of a night out everyone will, at some point, have had in their youth: an initial adrenaline rush fuelled by defiance…
… and the moments of comparative silence
… before the speakers are dialled down, the ramifications hit home, and regret takes centre stage – the perfect example being the both hilarious and horrifying karaoke scene.
From the sanctuary of chuckling to Terry Wogan on the telly, to the stillness of the sun shining on the seaside, the breakneck rollercoaster of youthful self-discovery often pauses to pave way to moments of heartfelt reflection, moments which will resonate with us all.
A simple yet searing design
Colin Campbell and Evanna Lynch in Disco Pigs at Trafalgar Studios (Photo: Alex Brenner)
Disco Pigs superbly treads the line between providing spectacle without sacrificing its script’s searing intimacy, largely thanks to the impressive work of director John Haidar and designers Richard Kent, Elliot Griggs and Giles Thomas.
Told mostly through physical performances, there are plenty of beautiful moments in Disco Pigs which are masterfully augmented with nimble design work. Look out for the incredible montage/disco mash-up sequence towards the end.
The reception
Evanna Lynch in Disco Pigs at Trafalgar Studios (Photo: Alex Brenner)
The greatest accolade any show can attain is that spontaneous moment of silence; that collective breath taken by all for reflection, that universal pause when the applause dies down at the curtain call.
Disco Pigs earned this emphatically on opening night, a testament to its triumph.
Disco Pigs plays at Trafalgar Studios until Saturday 19 August. You can book your tickets through the venue’s website.