Pig Heart Boy review – lively staging of Malorie Blackman’s stimulating novel
Some set designs instantly make sense. Paul Wills’s clever arrangement of television screens and speakers, all linked up by glowing capillary-like tubes, encapsulates Malorie Blackman’s 1997 novel about a boy whose pig-heart transplant leads to a media frenzy. Andrew Exeter’s lighting switches from blood red to cool blue for scenes when 13-year-old Cameron repeatedly puts himself – and, eventually, his new heart – to the test when diving at his local pool.
Blackman’s novel is itself a deep dive: this “what would you do?” book for young readers considers ethics, animal rights, othering and empathy. Keeping the pre-social media setting, Winsome Pinnock’s new adaptation draws upon the heightened poetic style of Blackman’s opening chapter. Pinnock retains the narrator’s spirited interest in wordplay, boosts the wisdom of Cameron’s Nan and makes water more of a unifying theme throughout the story. Her version also takes a thrilling new turn towards the end.
Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu’s boisterous production has some vivid performances, too, including by Immanuel Yeboah in the main role. But by overplaying the comedy it drowns out some of the story’s more reflective episodes. In the novel, Cameron often cracks jokes, even when face to face with the animal named Trudy whose heart he will receive, yet that encounter is hugely moving as the boy is overwhelmed with relief, fear, guilt and hope. On stage, Trudy is played as a disco-queen pig with pink puffer jacket and oversized glasses; discovering Cameron’s plans for her heart, she squeals in jokey horror. Elsewhere, animal rights are thinly discussed.
The production is more successful at conveying how Cameron is viewed by his classmates both before the operation (when they see his illness as fragility) and after (when he is still considered different to them). The children are played by an adult cast, most doubling up as the grownup characters. The pioneering Dr Bryce (Tré Medley) is amusingly portrayed as a spy-like smooth operator, all dressed in white both in and out of his laboratory, when that set design again works efficiently. Christina Ngoyi as his best friend Marilyn (Marlon in the book) has the right note of compromised loyalty; Christine During’s popular Julie has a buoyant ease but her later fear of Cameron again tips into comedy.
Related: Malorie Blackman on seeing her sci-fi novel about a pig heart transplant come true
Cameron’s asides to the audience include a raucous interrogation about who sold his story to the press that is strained and distracts from his inner tumult. The screens on stage could be used more effectively during Cameron’s TV interview and for the camcorder footage he records for his brother.
The show is aimed at nine to 13-year-olds (probably geared more towards the younger side of that range) and dynamically captures the turbulent world of school thanks in part to DK Fashola’s movement direction, especially appealing in an early slo-mo sequence. This staging has plenty of style and flows swiftly, helped by Xana’s sound design and compositions – but it never has quite the same direct appeal to head and heart as Blackman’s book.
At the Unicorn theatre, London, until 22 February. Then at the Playhouse, Sheffield, 27 February-15 March and touring until 14 June
