UK: CALLED SIMPLY 'PIG STREETTHEATRE' IT IS A SHOW THAT WILL MAKE YOU GRUNT WITH LAUGHTER

Record ID: 822966

  • Title: UK: CALLED SIMPLY 'PIG STREETTHEATRE' IT IS A SHOW THAT WILL MAKE YOU GRUNT WITH LAUGHTER
  • Date: 20th September 2003
  • Summary: LITTLE CHILD WATCHING WIDE OF PIG IN STREET WITH BALLOONS
  • Embargoed: 5th October 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRISTOL, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVACY3BB1322EOS97817TJULXE0A
  • Story Text: It's simply called 'Pig' a street theatre show
    that will make you grunt with laughter.



    She's a 30-foot long sleeping sow in a pen - you
    can see her snuffles, hear her snores, then take a peek and
    see a show full of surprises. Welcome to 'Pig', a street
    theatre with a difference.

    'Pig' is the latest performance by Manchester-based
    theatre company the Whalley Range All Stars. It's not
    unusual for the Whalley All Stars to pull out quirky ideas
    from their vast repertoire. Past performances have included
    big plastic noses, shop window dummies, and miniature
    theatre booths. 'Pig' is a new prop to tempt audiences:
    "We thought it would be very nice if we made the
    audience watching the show look like little piglets, it
    would then be nice for the audience walking past the show,
    who watch the audience watching the show, so the show works
    on two levels", explains Edward Taylor, co-founder of the
    company. And, in true British fashion, there is a slight
    twist to choosing a pig out of all animals. It's not just
    about making the audience laugh, it's also about getting
    them to laugh at themselves - and how can you not, being
    asked to wear a plastic pigtail.

    "Pigs have a large amount of piglets so you get ten
    people in and people seem to react very nicely to pigs. So
    , I think it was more, if you can get the audience to be
    pigs, mildly insult them, if we can get away with that,
    then that would be a good thing", says Taylor.

    'Pig' shows last about ten minutes, and are written
    by the company itself. Short, funny, and understandable for
    all ages, they attract young and old alike.

    Festivals like the recent Bristol Street Festival are
    the most likely places where street theatre companies like
    the Whalley Range All Stars find work. Despite being very
    popular, they still have to work very hard to make enough
    money to afford a living.

    "You're always hanging on, I mean we work a lot and
    we get paid by the festivals who book us. So there is a
    sort of touring season in this country from May to October
    and then Southern Hemisphere where the summer is reversed,
    if we go to Australia, in fact everywhere, there are very
    few places in the world - probably the Antarctic is
    somewhere that they don't feature street theatre. But most
    festivals have some element of it. It is possible to
    survive, although you know we don't live in mansions or
    have flashy cars or anything like that", says Taylor.

    The Whalley Range All Stars have toured across the
    world, a British export, that they say is recognized almost
    straight away. It could be their choice of material, style
    of performance or simply 'English way' in coming across to
    foreign audiences. Whatever it is, it still puzzles them
    slightly, that they are branded 'British' almost straight
    away.

    "I mean we've done shows where we don't talk and
    people in France saying 'oh they're so British' and you
    think well how do they know that, we haven't said anything.

    So I don't know whether our thumbnails are unmistakably cut
    in the British style, I think it's a dry humour and a sort
    of ... same way we look at Spanish groups running around
    screaming, the British are probably a little more reserved,
    dry and I think we don't feel particularly British when
    we're here but as soon as we go abroad 'British' like that
    just screams out at you."
    'Pig' is coming to a 'town near you' in
    October/November, when the tour continues with performances
    in Bexhill, Galway and Belfast.


    (QUIRKY)
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