If I had an award to give for the craziest show I have seen at this year’s Fringe, Pigs Fly Easy Ryan might just take the prize. This bonkers debut from company Nonstop follows two pigs who decide to become flight attendants. After all, who said pigs cannot fly?
The show is gloriously silly and hilariously unhinged, disorienting in the best possible way. Audience participation is used to great effect, as we become passengers on the plane attended by these two little piggies.
The writing revels in its bizarre syntax: the lines are often not complete sentences, and the whole thing is imbued with a childlike wonder. On one level, this reinforces that our characters are pigs; on another, it creates a fast-paced, engaging, and fun rhythm to listen to.
Lou Doyle and Trevor White are superb as pigs Maya-Hee and Maya-Ho. Their physicality and acrobatic skill are consistently impressive, matched by exquisite comic timing and total commitment to the piggishness of it all. White is particularly brilliant in his camp confidence, and his insistence that he is not a pig but a micropig is especially funny.
There is an attempted political edge to the story, seemingly a criticism of consumerism, the aviation industry, and everyone who has ever flown. At one point, the “in-flight entertainment” shows us an array of pig-themed media, from Babe to Boris Johnson discussing Peppa Pig World. When these clips become interspersed with more explicitly political images, including footage of Palestine and Trump, the mood shifts abruptly. This device, packaging heavy material within a moment of comedy, forces the audience to reflect critically on ourselves. Even so, the actual political message remained somewhat unclear to me. The whole piece felt more like a consumerist fever dream than a sharp critique, and honing this angle could have sharpened the show’s bite.
The finale, complete with an inflatable slide and a great deal of nudity, is sheer madness. Pigs Fly Easy Ryan may prove divisive, but for those seeking a dose of good old-fashioned Fringe lunacy, it promises a riotous evening’s entertainment.
Pigs Fly Easy Ryan runs until 24 August at Iron Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Alex Brenner, provided to The Student as press material.