It’s been a while since our last visit to Unicorn Theatre, so when I heard about this production of the 1997 Malorie Blackman novel, I jumped at the chance. Of course, the last time we went it was from church not home so I hadn’t actually done the route before, which I kinda forgot about till we were at Liverpool Street. Google Maps told me to get the 47 bus and, as we were grabbing a quick coffee, I blithely waved at one going past and said there would be another soon.
Reader, there was not. A 47 was due on the board but never materialised and, having ignored several London Bridge-bound options, we found ourselves slightly out of time and eventually jumped on the 149. Luckily it was Reuben with me today, not Eva, so power-walking down Tooley Street wasn’t as challenging as it could have been. I don’t regret getting coffee either – I don’t think I could have power walked without it or done the four flights of steps from the toilets in the basement of the Unicorn to the stalls. But both were achieved and we slipped into our seats exactly as the show was meant to start. Phew!
The main reason I brought Reuben with me was because Eva wanted a pyjama day but I’m happy with the reviewing buddy I ended up with. He has a Biology test on the heart on Monday, so this was ideal revision and all theatre trips help towards the GCSE Drama study. He’s also interested in philosophy and this show posed a few ethical questions that made for some interesting conversations on the way home. The age guidance said 9-13 but I would say the content is fairly mature…the characters are in their early teens and the teenager felt like it wasn’t too young for him. An emotionally-robust 9-year-old would probably be fine with the show but Eva at 9 would probably have been a sobbing mess by the end. It does evoke some big feelings.
For those not familiar with the book, the basis is that 13-year-old Cameron has a heart condition and is offered a revolutionary new procedure to replace his failing heart with one from a specially-bred pig. You can see where the ethnical dilemmas come in and they were amplified by the lurking presence of the animal rights’ group “LEPAR” throughout the show. Cameron and his parents wrestle with both the morality of breeding animals as replacement human kits and the practicalities of whether this would even work. I won’t spoiler the end but these questions are never entirely resolved, which is probably for the best as wrapping everything up neatly would feel very artificial.
I don’t know whether the play was intended to be set in the 90s as that’s when the book was written. The clothes worn by Cameron’s mum would certainly suggest it was, along with the glimpses of 90s video games on the TV screens and a 90s song while he’s under sedation (I think it might be “Sweet Love” by Fierce but I might have remembered this wrong). Given the media circus around Dolly the Sheep in the 90s, it would have been a very topical book at the time so it makes sense to pull the era through to the stage production.
So already a setting that’s close to my heart and having two secondary school age children made the whole set up very familiar. The uniforms even looked a bit like Eva’s although they also had a bit of a Gryffindor feel.
The cast was small and frantically multi-roleing, with lighting-fast costume changes. The only person to stay in the same role throughout was Immanuel Yeboah as Cameron and that’s because he was on stage almost constantly. He even did one of his costume changes in front of the audience. He carries the whole show and has to go through a full emotional range every performance, which is impressive for a relatively young actor (I’m aware that he’s not actually 13 but he’s certainly closer to Roo’s age than mine.) Immanuel effectively combines the self-centredness and arrogance of a teenage boy with the vulnerability of someone who’s been chronically ill for as long as he can remember. Teenagers tend to think they’re indestructible but he gave Cameron that edge of uncertainty. A really assured performance in the central role, which is ably backed up by the rest of the cast.
It’s very much an ensemble piece, with the entire cast appearing in the first scene as Cameron’s fellow students and their teacher. The scene is full of youthful energy and Reuben assures me that it’s true to life – when the teacher leaves the room, no work is getting done. The lighting is especially effective in this scene as it shifts colour according to the mood.
Before the show, the light tubes on the set were all red, pulsating out from a central heart. Reuben did point out that you’d die if you only ever had blood moving away from the heart and not back towards it but I should say, he is unusually pedantic. Throughout the show, the red returned whenever the action was focussed on the medical aspects of the plot but changed to blue for the swimming pool scenes as well as various other colours. It’s a simple trick but done really well.
The action calms downs when the play shifts to Cameron’s family. Which is fine because those teenagers were pretty loud and those energy levels would be hard to sustain throughout. Christine During and Akil Young age up rapidly to play Cameron’s parents and it’s an impressive shift to go from rowdy teens to careworn middle aged parents so quickly. There’s a very touching scene as they say goodbye to Cameron before his surgery and I think I heard someone near me sob a little as Cameron is hugging his Dad. That definitely would have been Eva if she’d been there.
The doctor who performs the procedure was played by Tré Medley, who oozed confidence as he swaggered about the stage. This was in contrast to his nervy schoolboy role of Andrew, who was shaking on the diving board. Reuben later described the doctor character as “sketchy” and he certainly had that charismatic but sus vibe going on. The kind of character to sell you a monorail as well as a pig’s heart.
Christina Ngoyi played a multitude of roles from Cameron’s best friend Marilyn to a German doctor to a TV presenter to a journalist a few seconds later. I told you these cast members were good at multi-roleing. She had a lot of energy in every role and provided the heart of another ethical dilemma…what if you were trusted with a secret but you were too worried about your friend to keep it? What if sharing the secret could save your family from eviction? There are layers of complexity to Marilyn and Christina expressed all of these layers well.
The main cast was rounded off by Chia Phoenix who, as the much-quoted Nan, was central to one of the most poignant scenes in the show. There was near-silence in the auditorium as she walked off the stage and that’s pretty hard to achieve when the audience is packed with children. Chia also plays a number of other roles, including a surreal turn as the personification of the pig that is providing Cameron’s new heart. The cast list has Olivia Williams Freeman and Rhys Lanahan as understudies but I believe we saw both on stage today as I definitely counted eight people at the curtain call. This is a complex set of characters that demands a lot from each of its actors so I’m not surprised that every available actor is involved onstage.
The play tackles the issues of fractured families, as well as fractured hearts with Cameron’s parents arguing constantly about him and Marilyn’s parents arguing about money. The themes of risk and consequence also loom large, with Cameron and his family making difficult decisions, especially towards the end, about whether it’s worth the pain of going through treatment in order to secure a chance at life. The scene I mentioned earlier with Nan really drives home the idea that you have to take every chance you have at life and enjoy it as much as you can. That’s a powerful message for tween audiences who might be starting to struggle with the prospect of growing up and need some reassurance that life is, pretty much, worth the effort of living it.
I realise I’ve been making this play sound quite heavy by majoring on the poignancy and the ethical questions but there is a lot of fun moments. From the schoolkids dancing about their classroom to the comedy use of the health scanner (“Dutty”), there are plenty of lighter moments and there is a good balance between the fun and the drama. I just mentioned the darker moments because this is what sets this production apart from other kids’ theatre shows – it very much feels like it has the depth to pull in the slightly older audience. As a nearly 16-year-old, Roo enjoyed it and had his own thoughts about the medical ethics of it all. We were talking about the whole length of the walk from Tower Bridge to London Bridge. Which is very pretty at night, in case you didn’t know:
We also passed Hays Galleria, which is equally pretty:
Our destination was the Nando’s at Clink Street for dinner, which has become something of a habit on outings that are just me and Reuben. Eva is a Nando’s refuser and as for Nathan…well, sucks to be him. Along the way, we passed through the tunnel underneath London Bridge where Cynthia’s used to be in the early 2000s.
There was a tinny little song playing that I didn’t recognise at first but then I clocked that it was “London Bridge is Falling Down”. Not exactly what you want to hear when the full weight of London Bridge and all its buses is just above your head. Fortunately we made it to Nando’s unscathed.
On the way back, we spotted the Shakespeare mural which has now been partially covered by a portaloo:
And did I mention the sinister giant rooster earlier? No, I might leave you with this terrifying image then:
I mean, that rooster is genuinely mansize.
Anyway, enough of the found art….let me tell you once more to go and see “Pig Heart Boy” while you can. It’s challenging in parts but heartfelt (no pun intended) and will stay with you well after the final bows. It was around 105 minutes without an interval but it zips by and leaves you wanting more of Cameron’s story. Definitely worth crossing the river for.
“Pig Heart Boy” is at the Unicorn Theatre until 22/02/25. For tickets and more info, click here.
Disclaimer: I received tickets in exchange for a review. All opinions remain honest and my own.
