Pig-related humour has been on the menu recently for reasons unrelated to theatre. But this 2006 play from one of the writers of the musical Urinetown, here receiving its UK premiere, avoids gags about pulled pork.
Instead it mixes old-fashioned farce and a parody of gritty fables of rural life — with some bursts of pantomime violence and a few satirical barbs thrown in.
Tom and Tina run a struggling farm. The arrival of Teddy, a dullard from the Environmental Protection Agency who’s played with dry precision by Stephen Tompkinson, means that the pigs need counting. This task is handed to Erik Odom’s Tim, who’s on “work release” from a juvenile detention centre. He rattles through it — claiming there are 14,222 pigs in all — and soon makes a point of showing he’s just as fast an operator when it comes to exploiting Tina’s marital frustration.
All the characters have names that begin with T, and anyone who thinks that’s funny will squeal with delight at Greg Kotis’s script, which revels in deliberate clichés and honking repetitions.
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Director Katharine Farmer milks the opportunities for rambunctious physicality, and there’s an amusingly toe-curling scene in which Tim launches himself passionately at Charlotte Parry’s Tina. But despite the cast’s full-blooded commitment this isn’t a crackling comedy.
Until November 21, St James (0844 264 2140)
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