Pig Girl review the dead and their murderer speak into the silence

“Turn your head and see us. Just turn your head. Turn your head and you’ll see me” is the refrain in this play by Canadian playwright Colleen Murphy, inspired by the disappearances of women over many years from the Vancouver Eastside area.

A pig farmer was convicted on six counts of murder, but the DNA of 27 further women was found. And what of all those women of whom no trace has ever been found? The nameless? The voiceless? Why did they go unseen, unheard? Was it because most of the disappeared were indigenous women, some drug-addicted and many sex workers?

Set in the pig farm barn, the play allows the dead to speak into the silence. It is the playwright’s way of ensuring that they “live forever” as the dying woman (played by Kirsten Foster) defiantly and courageously insists she will, even as she is tortured and raped by the killer (played by Damien Lyne).

While this brutal scenario unfolds, the dying woman’s sister (played by Olivia Darnley) tries to convince a dismissive police officer (Joseph Rye) to look for her missing adopted sibling.

Murphy writes from the heart and with a strong sense of indignation. But both the play, and Helen Donnelly’s production – which sees the dying woman hauled on to a meat hook, not entirely convincingly – have a queasiness in their graphic depiction of violence against women.

While Murphy gives a voice to the murdered women she also, rather less successfully and almost certainly unnecessarily, gives one to the killer too. Interesting, too, that in the title, Pig Girl, Murphy plays on, but possibly unwittingly plays to, the dismissive attitudes towards these unknown women.

There is a quietly searing performance from Olivia Darnley as the sister, determined to find out what happened to her sibling and who constantly reminds that the unknown and unidentified were all somebody’s sister or daughter or mother, all deserving of our attention and respect.

Until 16 February. Box office: 0844-847 1652. Venue: Finborough, London.

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