DISCO PIGS
A young Cork-based duo have blown Irish audiences away with their play Disco Pigs. Just wait till CORCADORCA get to the Edinburgh Festival.
Words: Martyn Galvani
28 III! usr 8—14 Aug 1997
YOU CAN SEE them in any bar in any city that’s had the heart ripped out of it — the mad- for-it teenysomethings. keeping to their own corner. looking down at the grown-ups going nowhere who messed it up for them.
These are the disco pigs. immortalised in Enda Walsh’s brilliant rollercoaster ride through two days in the life of a boy and girl at that awkward age of seventeen. when testosterone and hormones are about to make sweaty bedfcllows.
Not so much joined at the hip as the heart. Rum and Pig. as the pair so eloquently rechristen themselves. have created their own world out of the post-industrial debris in which they reign supreme. Their native Cork becomes Pork Sity. an adventure playground of cheap thrills. where everyone else becomes the enemy. from pub karaoke singers to students on the dancefloor.
For one little piggie at least though. things are changing. It’s time to move out of the
'Disco Pigs is a very sexy, very violent, love story. It's a theatre of the heart, not a theatre
0f the bOIIOCkS.' Enda Walsh
claustrophobic sity of their own making and widen her horizons.
Writer Walsh and director Pat Kiernan are the creative partnership in crime behind Disco Pigs and Cork-based theatre company Corcadorca.
“I had this dream about these two pigs going round Cork. eating tip buildings.‘ says Walsh. ‘I told this to Pat in the middle of the night. and in between wetting ourselves laughing. we came up with the phrase “disco pigs”.
‘At'ter that we started going out to pubs and discos. looking out for disco pigs. There‘s a place in Cork called Donnelly‘s Diner. which serves the worst chips and burgers in the
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world. It's full ol‘ disco pigs. I swear. there's loads ot‘ them. murmuring to one another. looking at everyone. It‘s this classic lrish Valley ol‘ the Squinting Windows thing.‘
Disco l’igs was also influenced by the so- called Silent 'l‘wins. the Welsh twins who never spoke to anyone but each other. inventing their own language and moving in unison. The play is written in a strange. initially impenetrable hybrid of (‘ork dialect and sttb—(.'lockn-ork Orange-style patois. the musicalin of which is heightened by (‘ormac O'(‘onnor‘s moody. slow beats soundscape. It‘s this poetry and spirit of linguistic adventure that helped Walin win the Stewart Parker and the (ieorge I)evine playwrighting awards.
Despite cttlt hit potential. (‘orcadorca are resisting the temptation to (log Disco l’igs on the back of the current vogue tor slam happy theatre pieces hi-jacking the yool' market. As for the “l” word. let‘s leave that out of it.
‘lt's too easy? says Walsh. ‘We‘ve been very carcl‘ul about the whole marketing ol' the play. because it would‘ve been easy to sell it as being in your face and funky. but that's so boring. We could sit down here and write a play in halt-hour that would have all those elements in. but with no emotion whatsoever. A lot of people would love it. but so what. that‘s MTV.
"l'he hard part is trying to touch people. My big tear is that some people might go and see Disco Pigs and come out going “Wow. wasn‘t that violent”. when actually what it is is a very sexy. very violent. love story.
‘lt‘s a theatre of the heart. not a theatre ol‘ the hollocks.‘
Disco Pigs (Fringe) Corcadorca, Traverse Theatre (Venue 15), Edinburgh, 0131 228 1404, 7—30 Aug, 9.45pm. £8 (£5).