Pig Girl
by Colleen Murphy
by Colleen Murphy
Pig Girl is a haunting exploration of a dying woman's struggle for agency and dignity while a killer holds her captive, intertwined with the story of her sister's fight against systemic negligence in the investigation of missing marginalized women.
About The Play
About The Play
A new production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre and originally seen as a staged reading as part of Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, and part of its Winter Season of 20 Premieres, the European premiere of Pig Girl by former Canadian Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre, Colleen Murphy.
Inspired by real events.
For eighty-five minutes, a Killer holds a Dying Woman captive in a secluded barn. Their names say it; there is no escaping the horrific conclusion.
In the empty space on either side are the Dying Woman’s Sister and a Police Officer. Their action spans nine years as the sister beats her head against a police force agonizingly slow to investigate the disappearance of marginalized sex workers.
The play gives a fictional victim’s story back to her as she fights to refuse the inevitable. It will not help her, but her heroic defiance gives voice to thousands of women whose lives or spirits have been lost to violence.
Pig Girl received its world premiere in November 2013 in a hugely controversial production at Theatre Network in Edmonton, Alberta. It recently won Canada’s prestigious Carol Bolt Award, sponsored by Playwrights Canada Press, the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, and Playwrights Guild of Canada, for the best new by a Playwrights Guild of Canada member that has premiered in the past year.