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24 Jul 2024 | |
Written by Tara Biddle | |
Arts & Culture |
Alex and Charlie set up PigPen Productions after finishing at Tonbridge in 2020: pigpencreative.com
Los Tres Cerditos is PigPen's second piece of original theatre to take the stage at Riverside Studios, London. PigPen have displayed original works of theatre every year since 2020, most recently the critically acclaimed Deuteronomy which was nominated for an OffFest award following its run at the Edinburgh Festival last year.
Los Tres Cerditos is now being performed as part of the Bitesize Festival, Riverside Studios from the 19 to the 27 of July:
https://riversidestudios.co.uk/see-and-do/los-tres-cerditos-119597/
Los Tres Cerditos is perhaps the company’s most daring work yet; the play itself features its own language; a kind of Spanglish mixed in with medical terminology created by manic triplets. Like every one of PigPen’s plays, the work features an impressive prop to centre the piece – a large hand-crafted triple bunk bed, and a soundtrack created by the actors on stage via record player.
The Play
Three childlike triplets live in one room in fear of a strange presence next door. Each night without fail they watch and act out the same VHS tape saved from a time before: a Spanish cartoon titled Los Tres Cerditos (the Three Little Pigs).
They’ve been isolated from the rest of the world for multiple years from a young age, though now they are in their twenties. In an attempt to fill the cavities formed from an existence separated from normal society, their language has evolved into a chaotic, childlike amalgamation of Spanish and English. They govern their own surreal microcosm of existence following their own tragically comic spiritual routines, playing out old childhood memories on repeat like a scratched record.
The play casts an eye over the effects of isolation, childhood abuse, and the power dynamics that accompany isolation.
Los Tres Cerditos - Riverside Studios, "Cruel. Crazy. Extraordinary. Fascinating."
Scotsman critic Kate Copstick on reading Los Tres Cerditos.
Both plays have been published in a special edition book: PigPen Books, The Riverside Plays: Deuteronomy | Los Tres Cerditos
We wish Alex, Charlie and Will the very best for the rest of their run.
Charlie Thurston (left) Alex Yates (right) directing Los Tres Cerditos
Charlie Thurston (middle), Will Rees-Young (right)