Pig Girl - A Murder Most Foul

“People don’t disappear into thin air. Not in this country. Not in Canada.”

Pig Girl is a gruesome story we’ve heard all too often. Although a work of fiction, the play is inspired by the disappearance and murders of predominantly indigenous women over a number of years in Canada. Plagued by poor communication and the indifference of police forces, the carnage led to the deaths of thirty three women at a single pig farm on the outskirts of Vancouver.

The play depicts the interactions between a dying woman and her killer, the pain and devastation of the woman’s sister and a police officer’s role in the investigation. Staged at the intimate Finborough Theatre, the audience watches as the killer slowly unfolds his desire to hang the woman by a pig hook, as he has done with countless women before her.

The script does little to show real development in the characters

The desperation of the dying woman is beautifully played by Kirsten Forster whose mentality towards her captor is fascinating from start to finish. Perfectly balanced between anger and a necessity to plead with the killer, the comforting stories she tells from her childhood only seems to deepen the pain her sister feels recounting the same stories to the police.

In contrast to his victim, the killer, played by Damien Lyne, has an incredibly harrowing, obsessive consistency in what almost feels like an out of control fetishistic game. Lyne’s physicality perfectly matches the nervousness and mental instability of the killer, but also highlights how he is emotionally damaged in a very similar manner to his victim. While the killer and his victim’s story develops over a number of days, the sister and police officer’s story unravels continuously, spread over a number of years. What starts a plea for attention from the sister, played by Olivia Dornley, turns into an officer seeking her help after years of uncertainty. Placed either side of the victim and her killer, their conversation accompanies the violence from a perspective even more painful for an audience since it feels so much closer to what could be our own experiences.

Generally, the delivery of the story and the commitment of the actors give the story a powerful and effective narrative. However, the script does little to show real development in the characters. Except for the police officer, played superbly by Joseph Rye, the characters feel like they are emotionally at the same place throughout the performance. While for Dornley, this seems to be a result of the writing, the more graphic moments between the woman and her killer are at times stunted from the difficulty of portraying violence in such a small, intimate space. Likewise, the use of the pig hook feels unconvincing. Although I appreciate hanging an actress upside down is not easy, I feel the director Helen Donnelly could have taken a few more risks throughout the staging. This said, the limitations of the space make it understandable that some images could not have been achieved from a practical standpoint.

The overall result is a dark, powerful production

The overall result is a dark, powerful production which has all the hallmarks of an excellent psychological play. Colleen Murphy’s script does a good job of balancing the emotional stance of all the characters without at any point feeling overbearing.

Although not a production which should be seen for enjoyment, the show is definitely worth seeing for its realistic depiction of such a horrible story.

Pig Girl is showing at the Finborough Theatre until 16th February. Tickets are £18, £16 for concessions