Disco Pigs NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (138)
See it if you want to see a wonderfully directed and acted two person play with minimum scenery.
Don't see it if this is not for everyone...very 'outside the box'. Edgy and exhilarating . Read more
See it if You are interested in an early work by a genius playwright always experimenting with narrators and their storytelling
Don't see it if You don’t like accents and experimental language and movement
See it if you like experimental theatre, Joyceian poetry, new forms, dance/movement, 90s time period, club kids, Irish writers, intense performances
Don't see it if you want linear plot, have difficulty w Irish accents, can't relate to teenage love & anger, Read more
See it if You can suspend your analytic self and give yourself up to just feel.These two are so in sync, I believed they had been together since birth
Don't see it if You have a problem with fog, you have ANY degree of hearing loss. You want something straightforward. You dont like the simple premise. Read more
See it if you like a high-energy, physical 2 actor play; Enda Walsh's edgier plays; can appreciate dialogue even when you cannot understand it; moving
Don't see it if need to understand every word, don't want fight scenes even if with an invisible opponent; don't want to see the anger & confusion of youth Read more
See it if You're ok with a two-hander that is more tell than show. You need to be able to imagine what's being described in action and setting.
Don't see it if You have problems with thick accents and "gibberish" twin speak. You really need to be engaged to understand everything that happens. Read more
See it if You love Irish theatre, have a soft spot for adolescent love/coming of age stories.
Don't see it if You hate working to decipher difficult to understand accents.
See it if you like abstract, intense work
Don't see it if you like linear stuff
Critic Reviews (35)
"This portrait of two best friends on the crumbling cusp of adulthood is driven by a concentrated fuel of adrenaline and hormones, mixed with lethal quantities of alcohol. That, and a word-drunk poetry that zigzags between extreme, giddy feelings of power and powerlessness...A cast of two with the teeming energy of an angry mob...It’s the hyper-physical performances that define not only a completely detailed environment as Pig and Runt see it, but also the reality beyond it.”
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“At many points, it is nearly unintelligible...Their thick Irish accents would be barrier enough to many American ears, but they also use a daunting personal language...There is much to admire about John Haidar’s revival, but despite the actors’ energetic performances, the experience of absorbing the play can be exhausting...Some audience members are bound to tune out early in confusion, and that reaction is understandable.”
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"Despite the nearly incomprehensible language I was struggling with as I watched the play, I was able to grasp the gist (alright, and some of the nuance) of the work. I credit the stunning, committed, and physical performances by both Lynch and Campbell...The roller coaster was skillfully piloted by Director John Haidar...
Still, despite the redeeming qualities...I’m afraid that presenting a play to an audience that is not going to grasp most of what they’re hearing, is just a bad call."
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“Campbell and Lynch make vivid impressions as the near-feral Pig and Runt...Walsh is at home with stories filled with shadows and tortured souls...Haidar’s staging moves at a fitting fast and furious clip. So much so your ears may ache as they try to adjust to the accents, unfamiliar references and Pig-and-Runt speak. That gets marginally easier over 75 minutes...The lives of Pig and Runt don’t.”
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“Haidar's revival is an admirable one. Moving at a hundred miles per hour from lights up, it features two actors almost supernaturally in sync...Their performances are thrilling...This work has lost its edginess as it has gotten older, and though Haidar, Campbell, and Lynch go for the jugular, the outcome doesn't feel as consequential as it did two decades ago...But an example of world dramatic literature that rarely gets produced in this country, it's important, worthwhile viewing.”
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"Darren and Sinéad are so intimately connected with one another that they communicate through their own mutually created dialect and shorthand slang...Their devotion to one another, to the point of excluding others, appears cute at first, but then reveals its unsettling details...But even with its brisk, energetic staging, there isn't quite enough substance to fill the play's 75 minutes. There's flashiness and style, for sure, but 'Disco Pigs' requires a bit more meat."
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“You simply have to ride the wave of words, hoping that they will coalesce into something comprehensible...I can't think of another play that so sternly insists on one's close attention while consistently frustrating it — and which, given the rather ordinary melodrama at its heart, offers so little in return...The two-person cast performs it with exemplary commitment and fluidity...I imagine that those who are familiar with ‘Disco Pigs’ will find many rewards here. They are welcome to them.”
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“Furiously paced and filled with unintelligible gibberish...’Disco Pigs’ is a challenge for contemporary American audiences...It's a period piece, but what may have seemed cutting edge and radical in 1996 runs the risk of feeling dated and pretentious in 2018...Both Campbell and Lynch have commanding presences on stage and throw themselves into their roles with passion, energy and commitment...Without question, Campbell and Lynch are the reason to see this revival."
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