Review: Dancing and dialect in Disco Pigs, Trafalgar Studios 2
23/07/2017
Colin Campbell and Evanna Lynch in Disco Pigs, Trafalgar Studios. Photo: Alex Brenner.
Pig (Colin Campbell) and Runt's (Evanna Lynch) heads are poking through two slits in a black curtain, recreating their simultaneous births which cemented their friendship.
Their description of the fateful events is ripe, vivid and amusing. It's told in a mixture of Cork dialect (comedian Tommy Tiernan describes it as sounding like a tinker trying to speak French) and words of their own making - you have to listen carefully, a bit like tuning your ear to Shakespeare and I certainly didn't get every word.
Fast forward 17 years to where we find these two tight friends cocooned in their own world of fun and havoc. You get bare brush strokes of what home life is like, it is their friendship which is the fuller portrait. They are isolated, fiercely loyal with their own language be it verbal or physical.
They just want to be left alone to re-enact TV shows or prowl the town taking what they want and lashing out when they don't get it. They are childish, silly, fun-seekers hankering after a fantasy disco but don't be fooled, these are feral teenagers with a nasty bite.
Both Colin Campbell and Evanna Lynch give committed, effusive performances - if you are seeking out Luna Lovegood, the character Evanna Lynch is most famous for portraying, there are echoes, imagine if Luna discovered cider, cheek and lost her moral compass. However the language and dialect does act as a barrier, it feels that there is more going on underneath the surface that would come from more detailed comprehension.
There are some laughs, more from those who's ears had clicked better with the language but despite its energy and pace it did slump a couple of times. It's not my favourite Enda Walsh play I've seen - that accolade goes to Misterman - and I'm giving it three stars. It's at the Trafalgar Studios 2 until August 19 and is 75 minutes without an interval.