Theatre Reviews

PIG HEART BOY
Unicorn Theatre
26^th January – 22^nd February, 2025
and then a UK Tour

“Cameron is thirteen, and all he wants is to be normal – have friends, go to school, and dive to the bottom of his local swimming pool. But he desperately needs a heart transplant and time is running out. When he’s finally offered a new heart, Cameron must choose how far he’ll go to get his life back.”

Review by Richard Lambert, 2 Stars

Based on a children’s novel by Malorie Blackman the story is about a 13 year boy with a heart condition that would eventually cause his fatality. Known as xeno-transplantation, these procedures raise ethical, legal and social concerns.

We meet “Trudy” – a bio-engineered pig, who is full of energy and about to be killed for her heart. The procedure is supposed to be kept secret due to potential protests from animal rights’ campaign groups (LEPAR) – in this story. This is an acronym for the group but ties in with the animal rights activist, Joseph Lepar, who campaigns that animals have rights and should not be experimented on, animal suffering should be reduced and they should not be bred for clothing or medicine.

PIG HEART BOY does not appear to have much empathy with the animal rights activists, showing a seemingly unbalanced portrayal. Even when the pig heart transplant is discovered and a protester throws a bucket of blood over the boy, they proclaim “well they don’t seem to mind using animal blood to protest”.

This story is fairly topical. In 2022, in the US there was a genetically modified pig used as a donor for a human heart transplant: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59944889

David Bennett, the recipient of the pig heart, spent 7 weeks in a hospital bed and then died 2 months later.

Here, in Pig Heart Boy, the heart is eventually rejected and Cameron has a 2nd transplant. While the production introduces the topics of xeno-transplantation it skims the surface without allowing much in-depth consideration of the issues aside from “you should keep this a secret to avoid the consequences of being caught doing something controversial”. I’m not sure that’s a great moral stand-point to give our children in what is essentially a show for children.

This technically ambitious production pulls out all the stops to deliver on set, lighting, sound and video, with varying degrees of success. The Set is the most impressive production element with a climbing frame scaffold tower to be climbed through which is entrailed with LED pipes. The LED pipes are pixel-mapped and can run colour effects and chases out in and out of a central loudspeaker to create a heart organ with arteries. Behind this set is a large curved cyclorama.

There are also seven video display monitors. They’re boxed-in, styled on old-fashioned CRT tubes which feels out of place as nothing else would suggest we’re in a period pre-90s. There is a lack of continuity in the video content with bedroom scenes that sometimes show the books and sometimes don’t, and a cam-corder prop that sometimes has content on the monitors and sometimes doesn’t. The video is sync’d well into the sound and lighting though. Two of the monitors downstage left kept needing to reboot and re-connect to their HDMI1 signals which was rather unfortunate and distracting.

I do think when you have children in the audience any statements need to be accurate. “Time” is “Speed divided by distance” – not the other way around as stated on Press night.

The haze machine placed downstage seemed to have a mind of its own and would blow smoke randomly. Sadly, not during the surgery dream sequence which had a vocal track but no on-stage singer. A missed opportunity for a lip-sync stylised number. Sufficient haze remained to enhance the lighting.

The cast were tremendous, switching seamlessly and quickly between children, adults and various different characters. The multiple costumes working really well for each character.

Coming in at 1 hour 40 minutes, no interval, it’s a long show to sit through on bench seating. Definitely make use of the “All Gender and Family” facilities, just don’t look any mothers in their glaring eyes while you wait in the queue if, like me, you’re a single man needing to use them.

Photo credit: Ali Wright

Cast
Immanuel Yeboahas – Cameron
Tré Medleyas – Dr Bryce/Andrew
Akil Youngas – Mike/Rashid
Christine Duringas – Cathy/Julie
Christina Ngoyias – Marilyn/Elrich/Presenter/Officer
Chia Phoenixas – Nan/Trudy/Mrs Stewart/LEPAR Lady
Olivia Williams Freeman and Rhys Lanahanas – Understudies.

Creatives

Pig Heart Boy will premiere at the Unicorn Theatre (26 January–22 February)
and then play at Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres (27 February–15 March)
before embarking on a UK Tour playing at
Playhouse, Liverpool (18 –22 March)
Lowry, Salford (26 –29 March)
Belgrade, Coventry (2 –5 April)
WolverhamptonGrand Theatre (8 –12 April)
NorwichTheatre Royal (23 –26 April)
NewcastleTheatre Royal (29 Apr –3 May)
Lighthouse, Poole (7 –10 May)
Blackpool Grand Theatre (14 –17 May)
Royal & Derngate, Northampton (21–24 May)
Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (4 –7 June)
and Curve, Leicester (10 –14 June)