Based on Malorie Blackman's classic children's book, the stage version of Pig Heart Boy has been hailed by reviewers as "beautiful, hilarious, thoughtful and special" and "a stunning production of a well-respected story". After a month-long run at London's Unicorn Theatre, the show is now making its way around the country, with its creator saying: "Though I wrote the story a while ago, it is still as relevant today as it was when first published."
Leading man Immanuel Yeboah agrees. “It speaks to issues that affect young people,” says the actor, who plays schoolboy Cameron in Winsome Pinnock’s adaptation, “and it addresses the need for more organ donors, especially in the black community.”
In the story Cameron is diagnosed with a serious heart condition and is in urgent need of a transplant. He is offered a new heart, but with a shortage of human donors the heart in question belongs to a pig named Trudy. Tensions at home and school ensue as Cameron is faced with a life-changing decision, then becomes a media sensation.
The character is a joy to play for Immanuel, who says: “He’s cheeky, intelligent and shy but he has a confidence underneath that shyness, which is shown through how articulate he is in describing to the audience what is happening to him. I’m really enjoying delving into his emotions and testing my own heart through his story – asking myself ‘Do I have a good heart?’ and ‘What is my relationships with my friends and my family?'”
Cameron is an imaginative young man who dreams of the life he wishes he was healthy enough to lead. “And I think we’re similar in how imaginative we are,” Immanuel says. Having trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, he also performs and writes spoken word and poetry and adds: “Like him I’m always exploring my imagination.”
Yeboah did research and development sessions for The White Devil with Pig Heart Boy‘s director Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu. This is their first stage collaboration and also Immanuel’s professional theatre debut. He smiles. “It’s scary and exciting at the same time.”
He hadn’t read the Malorie Blackman book before he landed the lead role but his older sister read it when she was in school, as did some of his cousins and friends. “So I knew how important it was to a lot of people. I read it as soon as I got the part because I really wanted to honour Cameron by getting his backstory, all the little intricacies of who he is, from the book and then pouring that into my performance.”
The stage adaptation, he feels, also honours the spirit of the book. “The thing I respect about Malorie is that she doesn’t patronise young readers. She really tells it like it is. Like the novel, the play is very emotional, very physical and intense, but it’s balanced beautifully with the playfulness of it.”
Blackman is a celebrated British author and former Children’s Laureate. She wrote Pig Heart Boy in 1997 to explore childhood illness, identity and the profound choices we make to survive.
Christine During, who plays Cameron’s school crush Julie and his mother Cathy in the stage production, read it when she was aged eight or nine and recalls: “I went on to read Noughts and Crosses and now doing this show has given me the urge to go back and look through her full catalogue of stories. I’ve always loved this particular story because it’s about resilience, having a purpose in life, understanding what your goal is and the fact that that can change depending on what is going on in your life at the time. It’s about relationships, all of those different dynamics and how layered they can be.”
During’s previous credits include Result, The American Dream 2.0 and The Grandfathers. An emerging writer and director, she got hooked on theatre at an early age, recalling: “I remember seeing a pantomime when I was six years old and just thinking it was the most amazing thing ever. I love just being able to play and get into a world of make-believe. The older I got, the more I realised that this art form is a therapy for me. I can step into a world and say and do the things that I really wish I’d done in real life.”
She’s passionate about the need for organ donors in the black community. “There aren’t a lot of black people on the donor list. That means that with a young black boy like Cameron their chances of finding a donor are much slimmer because you need somebody who shares a very similar genetic make-up. This play shines a light on how important it is to have conversations around what it is that we do with our bodies after we’re gone – the relationship between the physical and the spiritual and how they can be separated so that your body can be used for betterment after your demise.”
How significant is it being in an all-black cast, in a show based on a book by a black writer? “It ensures authenticity and we’re honouring the story in the way that it needs to be told. With the language that is used, the reactions our characters have, the world that it builds, all that needs to feel real – whether that’s for a black family watching themselves on stage or for a white family, an Asian family, anyone. It’s about being welcomed into this space and seeing that we go through the same things but this mannerism or that word is expressed in this particular way for people of Afro-Caribbean heritage.”
Christina Ngoyi plays Cameron’s best friend Marilyn, a doctor and scientist named Dr. Ehrlich, TV presenter Rhys Evans and a newspaper reporter. She was familiar with Malorie’s books from school and was especially fascinated with the subject matter of Pig Heart Boy. Relationships are one of the key themes of the story for Ngoyi, who says: “It’s really beautiful seeing how Cameron interacts with everyone and how everyone interacts with him as a child who has an illness. It shows audience members grace and compassion and how those can go a long way.”
A graduate of the Guildford School of Acting with Wishmas, United Queendom and We Hunt Together among her credits, she was “a very dramatic individual” since childhood and adds: “I really enjoyed being able to tap into another character, another person and explore a different world. It was a very therapeutic outlet for me as a child who had a lot of energy, then one day I realised ‘Oh, I can actually make this into a career’. Seven years after finishing drama school thankfully, by the grace of God, I’m still working.”
Christina sees theatre as an equally therapeutic experience for the audience. “They come in not knowing what to expect and what they’re going to get out of it. They might have had a really horrible day, then they come out and they feel inspired and happy. We hold people’s emotions, we navigate them through the story and we allow them to feel these things that maybe they didn’t even realise they needed to tap into. That’s such a beautiful thing.”
Performer, writer and director Chia Phoenix is taking on the roles of school teacher Mrs Stewart, Cameron’s beloved Nan, Trudy the pig and an animal activist. She was drawn to acting because: “As a young person it was an escape. It was a chance to feel free and it feeds a passion. You get something back when you’re able to perform to an audience that I don’t think anyone could explain unless they were there on stage themselves.”
Her CV includes such shows as Cake, Finding Olokun, The Forty Elephants (which she also wrote and directed), Rhapsody of the Kill Joy and The Windrush Time Capsule. Before Pig Heart Boy the qualified creative arts therapist hadn’t acted for a few years and says now: “It’s really magical being back. Now I’m a little older I can really see the impact you have on audiences and the responsibility of being able to tell stories.”
In addition to co-producing the play, the Unicorn Theatre’s Creative Hub has been running hospital workshops to create a set of poems inspired by young patient’s stories. Like her cast mates, Chia was moved by meeting youngsters at Great Ormond Street Hospital and is proud to be in a production that draws attention to a shortage of organ donors. “It has to be almost a direct match, which is why the waiting list is so long for black patients whereas for a white person it’s much shorter because there are more donors. Being in something which highlights that in a way that’s easy to absorb is so important. It’s a real scenario that can happen at any time to any one of us and the reality is that you can’t just go to the hospital tomorrow and hope that there’ll be an organ waiting for you.”
As a creative arts therapist as well as an actor, Phoenix salutes the healing power of theatre. “Creative arts therapy is about understanding the power of creativity, what it does to the brain, creating new neurological pathways, helping you work around what you’ve gone through. In school my drama teacher said ‘You allow people in the audience to have a cathartic experience, you are able to connect with them and take them on this journey, and you’ve got the power of emotion in your hands’. That has stayed with me. They can cry, they can laugh, then they leave feeling lighter.”
As part of the ensemble, Olivia Freeman is understudying multiple roles. She first discovered Pig Heart Boy when she was in school and says: “Both in the book and now on stage, it’s a story about hope, relationships, family, friends, how all of that affects you in your everyday life when you’re young. It’s also about never giving up.”
Formerly in Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds, Hare and Tortoise and Real Love, she feels Pig Heart Boy has a serious message. “It’s really interesting seeing how much Cameron wants to live. It’s a colourful play and has lots of fun elements but it’s also a serious play. There are a lot of kids out there who are desperate to live and this is a story that needs to be told. I think there will be children in the audience who have had illnesses and have been in and out of hospital who will relate to that. It’s like a support to those kids and it’s shining a light on those stories.”
A care leaver, Olivia describes her younger self as “a lost child who went through a lot of stuff”. Then she went to see a production by the Big House Theatre Company as part of her rehabilitation. “And I watched it and was like ‘This is really fun, I can do this’ so I went to drama school and found my way here.”
Representation is as important to Olivia as it is to her co-stars. “It’s beautiful to have these black stories showcased and to have that representation. Then on the flip-side of that it is nice for other people to learn about our worlds and our stories, people that aren’t from our culture that actually might feel uncomfortable asking these questions. This show is a warm invitation to come and see an insight into our world.”
Bringing young people into the theatre is crucial. “That’s the reason I’m sat here talking with you today,” Freeman smiles. “I think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to open the minds of children and show them that it’s art but it’s also a job that they too can do if they really set their hearts and minds to it.”
:: Tickets available now at Pig Heart Boy – Family – Theatre – Lighthouse or on 01202 280000.