The Boy Who Kicked Pigs – The Mac – Review
by Cathy Brown

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker
Presented by Bruiser Theatre Company at The MAC, Belfast

Date: 16 Oct – 18 Oct 2025

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, adapted from Tom Baker’s darkly comic novella, is a gleefully grotesque piece of theatre (as you might expect from arguably the strangest Doctor Who) that revels in the absurd and the macabre and serves as a perfect vehicle for Bruiser Theatre Company’s signature style.

It follows Robert Caligari, a misanthropic 13-year-old whose petty cruelty  —  beginning with his obsession with kicking his sister’s piggy bank  —  spirals into a series of increasingly bizarre and violent acts. What starts as a twisted children’s tale becomes a surreal exploration of boredom, cruelty, and the consequences of apathy. The production’s inventiveness is immediately striking. With minimal set and imaginative use of props and lighting, the ensemble of four conjures an entire world that feels both cartoonishly exaggerated and disturbingly real. The aesthetic sits somewhere between a nightmare, a Monty Python sketch, and a Tim Burton out-take, all sharp angles, manic energy, and grotesque caricature.

Under Lisa May’s tight and inventive direction, the actors switch roles with fluid precision, using movement and voice work to create a gallery of eccentric and unsettling figures. Gerard Headley is magnetic, managing to be both disturbing and vulnerable as Robert and bringing touching depth to a role that could easily have been one-dimensional. Eleanor Shannon makes a formidable Nerys, whose recorder playing sets the action in motion but whose loyalty to her brother never wavers. Jack Watson and Mary McGurk round out the quartet, flipping roles with speed and precision, and forming an excellent double act as the employees of the local newspaper and two delightfully hapless policemen. Watson almost steals the show as the voice of Trevor the piggy bank; keeping him visible on stage may dilute the depiction of Robert’s fractured mind, but it delivers some of the show’s funniest and most horrifying moments. The tight choreography of the ensemble is so smooth it belies the sheer skill, practice, and timing behind it. This is a masterclass in physical storytelling: chaotic, playful, and always visually engaging.  Some of the more surreal moments  — a bus load of priests who all resemble Father Dougal, two waltzing rats, and Pedro the preening lifeguard — exemplify the production’s gleeful madness, where horror and farce collide to unforgettable effect.

Stuart Marshall’s set is a deceptively simple space of silvery, sharp surfaces and ransom note-inspired signs which mark the scene changes. Props are plentiful but multi-purpose, reinforcing the sense of a world cobbled together from imagination and scraps, while Lynda Thompson-Spack’s versatile and ingenious costume design clearly and quickly delineates characters. James C. McFetridge’s lighting bathes scenes in cold blues or stark whites, heightening the chill of isolation, while the overall design achieves moments of terrible beauty. Garth McConaghie’s soundscape supports rather than overwhelms, channelling Hitchcock/ Hermann one moment and vaudeville the next, always complementing the play’s shifting moods.

There are moments when excess threatens to overbalance, and if the production has weaknesses, they lie mostly in its structure and pacing. The story unfolds more as a sequence of darkly comic vignettes than a tightly plotted narrative, which can make it feel episodic. A few scenes overstay their welcome, particularly the two song numbers, but this is more a fault of the play than of the production.

Overall, May and her actors succeed in walking a fine line between laughter and discomfort. The tonal balance sits comfortably between horror and comedy, and this is what gives the production its power. Bruiser have taken the source material’s darkness, weirdness, and off-kilter humour, and transformed them into a show that’s as visually inventive as it is morally ambiguous. It’s not comfortable, but it’s memorable and is a reminder that Bruiser are among the most inventive and distinctive theatre companies working today.

Team

Artistic Director: Lisa May
Set Designer: Stuart Marshall
Lighting Designer: James C McFetridge
Sound Designer: Garth McConaghie
Costume Designer: Lynda Thompson-Spack
Production Manager: Rory Casey
Stage Manager: David Willis
Producer: Lara Albergo
Assistant Producer: Maeve Morgan
Cast
Gerard Headley
Mary McGurk
Jack Watson
Eleanor Shannon