Disco Pigs, theatre review: Evanna Lynch brings home the bacon

I must confess to a lack of love for the self-contained, hermetically sealed micro-worlds that populate the work of Irish dramatist Enda Walsh. So tightly shut up against everyday existence are they that we often feel there’s no room – no need, even – for us.

It’s pleasing, then, to be able to spend 70 minutes here feeling admiration for two strong performances in a fiercely realised otherworld. Admiration, though, is still not the same thing as love.

Disco Pigs made its explosive British debut 20 years ago, catapulting Pig (Colin Campbell) and Runt (Evanna Lynch, best known as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films) into playgoers’ consciousness.

Born Darren and Sinead at the same time at the same hospital, they have been inseparably insular friends ever since, developing something akin to their own peculiar heightened language. Now quasi-feral teenagers of 17, stirrings of sexual awakening are beginning to trouble their fiercely platonic friendship.

All credit to director John Haidar for his tightly focused vision and to movement director Naomi Said for inventive physical work that is full of bounce and verve as the pair run riot all over town.

Pig and Runt love dancing and nightspots and Campbell and Lynch turn in kinetic, often synchronised performances that never allow the energy levels to dip. Lynch, in particular, conjures a fascinating, otherworldly air; it would be a pleasure to hear more from her. Admiration, though, not love.

Until Aug 19, Trafalgar Studios; atgtickets.com