Assembly Roxy
5th – 25th August (19.30)

At the Fringe today, in the cavernous theatre at Assembly Roxy,  three frolicing clowns – two lassies & a laddie –  can be found existing somewhere between the witches of Macbeth & the Stooges. Basking in the splendour of their monochrome world’s superb grubbiness, they combine gonzo contraptions, giant hammers & wordless gags in a diverse exhibition of their craft. The only sounds are a topnotch score & the shufflings of their feet – zombie flamenco style – between vignettes. Theirs is the theatre of causality, an eddying whirlpool of seamless transitions, & one crazy as heck crucifixion scene.

There is a certain cultish feel to The Long Pigs. It is an incredibly atmospheric, but ultimately unsatisfying piece of physical theatre. It looks absolutely amazing, & if you see this show as an aesthete it deserves 5 stars. The drawback to this, however, is that the combined paraphenalia of the stage aesthetic is far too cluttered, & detracts from the performance of what is in its most stripped down form an elongated series of childish clowneries. The overall effect then, is somewhere in the middle. For lovers of Physical Theatre it is very well done indeed, but such purist dramaturgy is not ideal for all Fringegoers.

Damian Beeson Bullen