Disco Pigs set to liven up NZ's cold winter months

Like Something Dreamed Up By Quentin Tarantino and Written By James Joyce on Acid.

Pig (Simon London) and Runt (Ban Abdul) – the dysfunctional duo carve up the stage with some theatrical mayhem in Disco Pigs.

Livening up New Zealand in the cold winter months will be Snort's national tour of Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs.

Winner of both the Dublin Theatre Festival's and Edinburgh Festival's, Best Theatre Awards, the Observer Play of the Year Award and the Scotland on Sunday Critic's Award, Disco Pigs is the high energy coming of age tale of Cork's self styled Bonnie and Clyde that has excited theatre goers and critics the world over. Now a major feature film and already translated into 12 languages - provocative and controversial, Disco Pigs is an international smash hit in the tradition of Trainspotting, Shopping and F***ing, Blasted and The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

Born on the same day and in the same hospital ward, Pig (Simon London) and Runt (Ban Abdul), are an inseparable duo, icons of their age like Romeo and Juliet, or Bonnie and Clyde. We meet the pair on their seventeenth birthday as they realize their dream of breaking free from the cultural cage they were born into and remaking the world on their own terms. Living for today, their escape into a world of desire, cider and music becomes a night that will change their lives forever.

An integral part of Ireland's answer to Cool Britannia, The Green Tiger Movement, Disco Pigs is a big shout out to "the inventiveness and irreverence of youth," says director Tony McCaffrey. "It's two rebels looking at the world and remaking it for themselves, but it's not hard-ass it retains a sense of Irish lyricism," he says.

Pig and Runt speak in a Pig-English of their own making which lends the play a sense of "streetwise-ness, it's almost Irish Hip Hop on stage," McCaffrey says. Language is the central device Enda Walsh uses to show Pig and Runt building and living in their own fantasy world.

Having their own language provides Pig and Runt with an out from culture, a point of difference to separate themselves from other people; "it articulates their idealism, and it empowers them, it gives them the opportunity to be in control of the way they exist in the world, and it provides them a way of being together," says McCaffrey.

Simon London and Ban Abdul are revelling in the opportunity to play the disturbed pair of over-hyped, disco crazy lovers Pig and Runt, two of the most challenging roles for young actors written in the 20th century. "What makes them such hard roles to play," McCaffrey says, "is both the language, and the emotional intensity of the performance. The challenge for the actors is to understand where Pig and Runt are coming, and to bring out the urgency of Pig and Runt's desire to be relevant forces in the world, to find their full-on violent and uncontrolled energy at the same time as their tenderness and vulnerability."

Obtaining the rights has been difficult as the show is so popular but McCaffrey was determined to stage the work in New Zealand. "It's theatre which is relevant to young New Zealanders, and hopefully it will inspire young playwrights here to write in a similar vein" McCaffrey says.

Our Thanks to: Creative New Zealand, PANNZ, YHA, Cosmic Corner Funk Store, Euphoria, 95BFM, Radio Active, Radio One, Community Trust of Southland and The Invercargill Licensing Trust.

Wellington BATS THEATRE July 23 - August 2, 8pm.

Invercargill CENTRE STAGE THEATRE August 6 - August 7, 8pm.

Dunedin ALLEN HALL THEATRE August 9 - August 16, 8pm.

Auckland THE HERALD, THE EDGE September 6 - September 13, 8pm.

Hamilton THE METEOR September 20 - September 22, 8pm.

Tauranga BAYCOURT THEATRE September 24, 8pm.

Rotorua EVENT VENUES ROTORUA September 26, 8pm.

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