What is it about pigs that make them so charming? One minute they're filthy in a field, snouts in the mud rooting around and you're backing away, but when they hit you with the full force of their delicious eyes in friendly faces it's hard not to want to get up close and give them a little scratch behind the ear. This farmyard charm is what this show's being sold on. Following in the trotters of well loved piggy tales like
Charlotte's Web and
Babe.
The story of
Betty Blue Eyes, the pig at the centre of this pig tale, is the same as that faced by Charlotte and Babe before her. She's being reared for the chop.
Imagine this: Britain is facing austere times but there's a royal wedding on the horizon and the 'haves' of a small town in Yorkshire are secretly fattening up a sow to help them celebrate the occasion, while the 'have-nots' have only Spam to look forward to. It's not that hard to imagine yourself there is it.
This play is actually set in post war Britain, 1947, and the wedding in questions is between Elizabeth and Philip. It's based on the
Alan Bennett film,
A Private Function, and adapted for the stage, with a few songs thrown in, by Anthony Drew and George Stiles, who wrote the songs for Mary Poppins. The original film wasn't just about a pig, it was bigger than that, it was about all the eccentric characters you might find in small town Britain, and how with a 'we're in this together attitude' and a few choice ideas people can have a jolly good time even when times are hard. So you might learn something as well as being rousingly entertained. And charmed by a pig.
Reece Shearsmith and
Sarah Lancashire headline the terribly British cast at their new home in the Novello, which is all decked out in bunting on the outside.
The most disappointing thing about
Betty Blue Eyes is that they're sadly not able to use a real pig in the production. While this would have undoubtedly added something for the audience, apparently they're a nightmare to work with: what with all the squealing and their lack of decorum when it comes to on-stage-antics. Still, the long lashed, animatronic Betty, and her three understudies, is not without charm. Especially when she opens her mouth and Kylie's voice comes out. Apparently she also farts –
that inside gossip comes from Cameron Mackintosh himself, the show's producer.
