Well, finally got to see it last night! ;D ;D
Great production. Well pleased they did it. DP was put on as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, which is a precursor to the 'main' Melbourne Festival, so you get the small & wierd arty stuff (read: more interesting!) during this bit, then the 'big' productions with names & official theatre companies & all the marketing for the main festival. Fringe Rules.
SO -
Pig: Jay Bowen Runt: Amanda Falson.
Lighting design: Luke Haills & Dave Newman.
That's it, tiny production! I think some mates just hired the loungeroom sized hall & printed some posters.
I don't have any pics sorry.
The play was GREAT - the actors were fantastic, they carried it off beautifully. Very plain set, no backdrops, just black sheeting. The only props were some "scammy fries" and drinks. No glass ashtray, thank goodness!! (he did that by shouting "ashtray" and mimed grabbing it in the Palace scene). It started with Pig & Runt sitting on chairs, elbows on knees looking at the floor as we all came in & found our seats. ! They simulated the adjoining rooms by the chairs facing away from each other & holding hands.
Anyway, the play is quite different to the movie, obviously, but I was surprised at how much detail was filled in with the filmed version, and also at how that didn't detract from it and filled in the story nicely.
The play is very compact - ran for exactly an hour. Nothing about the girls' school, or Runt being taken off in the car boot, or the back story about the parents (eg Runts dad's drinking), the focus is *totally* on them - as a result, I think we see more of Runt than in the movie. You get to see her emotionally moving away a little earlier than I picked up from the film, there are a couple of points where she's starting to wonder about life outside of the two of them.
They did the accents just fine - it actually made it a wee bit hard to follow for the first few minutes, while your ears 'tuned in' to their Pork-ese, but they did very well at Cork accents!
The scene when Pig describes his fantasies of making love to Runt had the audience giggling, which surprised me - I think a few people were quite shocked. I thought that was a bit childish of them - it's not funny, and he certainly wasn't playing it for laughs. The friend I went with admitted later she was one of the ones laughing - she was totally taken aback at the honesty and almost childlike physicality of his words. Beautifully played - he was more sad than Cillian's Pig, I think he knows already at this point that Runt doesn't feel the same way for him.
What else... um, a few thing are in different order for the stage version, it goes back to them as babies a couple of times. The karaoke is a different song, more croony, can't remember what it was but not You Really Got Me Going.
Runt's acting in thebit where she gets beaten up by the older woman at the karaoke pub was STUNNING. You felt sick for her, as she tries to get through to Pig that he let her down by not being there when she needed him in a practical way, and she slowly breaks down into tears - OMG.
The ending is less final, too - Runt runs away from him and it's left at that. She's wondering what now, made the decision to stop with the Pork City stuff and try out 'real' life, with other people.
Top production. As plain and simple as you could get, but hugely effective. I hope these two actors go places in a big way!
Cheers ~Ultra
I don't have any pics sorry.
I'm glad you enjoyed it and weren't influenced by the film as the play is the original plot/concept. 
