Review: PIG FARM, St James Theatre, October 28 2015

Urinteown writer Greg Kotis' latest production Pig Farm, is set, unsurprisingly, on a pig farm in small town USA, where farmer Tom lives with his wife Tina, and Tim, a teenage delinquent working on the farm as part of his probation.

Tom (Dan Fredenburgh) is getting his farm ready for the Environmental Protection Agency to arrive and count the number of pigs they have, to ensure they haven't gone over their quota. Tom enlists the help of teenager Tim (Erik Odom) who is staying on the farm while he takes part in a 'work release' programme, following a stint in a juvenile detention centre. It is Tim's job to count all of the pigs and make sure they're not over the 15,000 that the farm is allowed to hold. While Tom's focus is all on the farm, his wife Tina (Charlotte Parry) feels neglected and eventually falls for Tim's charms and the two spend the night together. EPA agent Teddy (Stephen Tompkinson) is in charge of counting the number of pigs on the farm. Tim is adamant that there are 14,222 overall, but when the EPA find discrepancies in the numbers, Tim incurs Tom's wrath as he faces losing the farm he's worked so hard to run.

The plot is extremely dull and thin, but it is thanks to the work of the actors that the audience find the play even the slightest bit intriguing. Parry is both vulnerable and feisty in equal measure, as she implores Tom to have a baby with her and yet has no problems taking a rolling pin to her husband's head as he drunkenly attacks Tim. Fredenburgh is notable as government-hating, farm-obsessed Tom, although it is Odom and Tompkinson's performances that really stand out. Both have brilliant comedic timing, lifting the mood of the play and making the bloody end of the play funny, garnering howls of laughter from the audience.

The entire play is set in the kitchen of Tom and Tina's house, and Carla Goodman perfectly captures the run-down state of the farm perfectly. The kitchen appliances are all dirty with years of grime and the table is stained as though from years of use.

Unfortunately, though the actors give their all to the production, the characters remain boring and two-dimensional and the plot is too thin. Although director Katherine Farmer ensures the final act is made funny, it's not enough to save the play as a whole.

Photo Credit: Tristram Kenton

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