By Colin Flaherty
King of the Pigs was a one man sketch show featuring improviser Barney Pollock. Here we met a cast of hilariously grotesque characters and were dragged kicking and screaming into their unhinged realities. We met such individuals as the hallucinating pest exterminator, a strange lounge singer, the extreme helicopter parent and an insane Faerie on the English Moors.
These scenarios were a sequence of colourful characters who introduced themselves, told us of their wacky world view, subjected us to some slightly uncomfortable banter and then abruptly transformed into the next. Darting about the stage, often with a evil look in his eyes, he used great physicality to flesh out each of these creatures beautifully and keep us laughing at their eccentricities.
Being the only one on stage necessitated that costume changes were economical and sometimes haphazard to keep the action moving. His recycling of clothing between characters meant that his gestures and the odd prop did the heavy lifting in differentiating between one freaky creature and the next. Needless to say he pulled this off with ease.
Audience banter played a considerable part in this show. A lot of the time the punter wouldn’t have a clear idea of what exactly Barney was prompting/fishing for which led to some awkward silences. Although the audience eventually warmed to the shows’ premise, he did have some amusing responses up his sleeve for when people either didn’t want to play or were simply confused.
The sole exit to the theatre was located not too far from the stage. Unfortunately there was an almost constant stream of people exiting and re-entering the theatre (possibly to whet their whistles at the bar – perhaps some folks need a stiff drink to cope with this freakiness!) which became quite distracting for the audience and seemingly for Barney. He handled it quite well by freezing, casting a glare and making a quip in keeping with his current character.
A special commendation goes to his tech Caitlyn Staples who created a brilliant audio visual feast to flesh out this bizarre and often unsettling world. Audio cues were perfectly timed for Barney to react to and the lighting effects brought us into the troubled minds of these lunatics. The smoke machine certainly got a heavy workout.
Those up for an hour of David Lynchian strangeness will find plenty to appeal. This off the wall menagerie were immensely silly and had the audience roaring throughout.
King of the Pigs is on at Improv Conspiracy until October 18
https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/king-of-the-pigs
