FRANK PIG SAYS HELLO

16 - 21 July at 8pm

€15 / €10 (Preview Mon 16th all tickets €7.50)

written by Patrick McCabe, based on his novel The Butcher Boy

directed by Brian Desmond

The story focuses on the character of Francie Brady - referred to in most of the play as Piglet - a troubled boy struggling to come to terms with himself, his family and ultimately, his entire surroundings. Burdened by the intrinsic fragility of his own mind, Piglet's childhood is also encumbered by an embittered, alcoholic father, and what in modern parlance would be known as a manically depressed mother. So with his father in and out of the pub, and his mother in and out for treatment, Piglet is forced to look elsewhere for human nourishment.

He gets the sustained sustenance he needs in the shape of peer Joe Purcell, and the two become firm friends. But it's a camaraderie that is fatally unbalanced, with Piglet's dependence on Joe having an increasingly sinister effect. That dependence intensifies after the suicide of Piglet's mother, and when local sissy Philip Nugent, and in particular, his mother, disturb the equilibrium of Francie and Joe's friendship, the narrative veers off into murkier territory.

Mairtin de Cogain
Sean McNally
Julie Butler

Lighting - Kath Geraghty
Sound - Irene Buckley

DSM - Virginie Hyvernat

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