Live Like Pigs: style

Section: Theatrical Style

Live Like Pigs is rooted in the Epic Theatre style which was brought to prominence by director and playwright Bertolt Brecht.
The play utilises Brechtian techniques such as Direct Audience Address, where characters break the fourth wall and address the audience directly. This purposeful disruption of the “illusion” encourages viewers to engage in active critical analysis of the play.
Another Brechtian technique used is Historicisation, where events are pushed into the historical past, reminding the audience that the circumstances are not an inevitable reality.
The usage of songs or Ballads, common in Brecht’s Epic Theatre, is also employed in Live Like Pigs, where characters sing ballads to provide commentary on the narrative or to express their emotional state.

Section: Stylistic Devices

The dialogue in the play is written in verse to mimic the dialect and pronunciation of the working-class characters, a tool used to enhance authenticity, and understand the socio-cultural context.
Dark humour is a style present throughout the story, where bleak circumstances are presented with a humorous slant, providing an impactful commentary on the grim reality.
Multiple roles or Role Doubling is utilised, forcing the audience to focus on the message rather than the character, a key principle of Brechtian theatre.

Section: Use of Set and Props

The set of Live Like Pigs is intended to be sparse and functional, minimalist in design to avoid distracting from the themes and characters.
Props are used symbolically to make social and political statements - for example, the pigsty, as a parallel to the family’s living conditions, satirises the government’s alleviation efforts for housing.