Playwright: Chris Weikel At: MidTangent Productions at National Pastime Theater, 4139 N. Broadway St. Tickets: www.tix.com; $15. Runs through: Nov. 26
Let's hope members of local fetish group Chicago Puppy Patrol know about MidTangent Productions' Pig Tale. Chris Weikel's "urban fairy tale" will likely appeal to those into "puppy play," even though MidTangent serves up a half-assed Chicago premiere of Pig Tale at National Pastime Theater.
Pig Tale focuses on noncommittal web designer Johnny (MidTangent artistic director Tony Lewis) and his frequent sex partner, Dave (heavily tattooed Andrew Kain Miller). Late one night mid-intercourse, Dave magically transforms into a pig.
Johnny understandably freaks out and seeks help from stoner friend Kyle (Michael Riley Elm) and defiant drag queen Mama Truth (Nicholas Harper). However, when Dave fails to revert back to human form, Johnny must decide whether he wants the responsibility of caring for his former sex buddy as a pet pig.
It's clear that Weikel uses this fairy tale premise to explore gay men's commitment phobias. However, Weikel's writing is lumbered with poorly paced stop-start scenes, so-so dialogue and a serious lack of character smarts. (It takes Johnny an unconscionably long time to realize he can get "yes/no" responses from Dave via double and single snorts.)
Weikel's text also isn't helped by the mostly poor performances from MidTangent. I'm not sure if director David Zak was forced to draw from the ranks of MidTangent company members to cast the production, but he and the ensemble largely fail to convincingly flesh out this tale.
As Johnny, Lewis' performance is largely one-note agitation. Johnny needs to take the biggest emotional journey in Pig Tale, but Lewis only meets his character halfway.
Elm's low-key performance as Kyle consistently misses the comic mark, making you wish that his pot-fueled research monologues would finish faster.
As drag queen Mama Truth, Harper definitely looks fierce. However, Harper, too, needs to work on comic timing to wring all of the attitudinal sass necessary to make Mama Truth a force to be reckoned with.
It's interesting to note that the best performance comes from the actor with the least amount of lines: Miller as piggy Dave. Even with a revealing kneepad-less fetish costume designed by Jeff Semmerling and Shel-don, Miller is able to show a wide range of emotions for Dave through his soulful blue eyes, piggy snorts and an on-all-fours physicality.
MidTangent is celebrated for creating its own irreverent and campy drag-queen-filled fairy-tale spoofs, but it stumbles with the semi-seriousness of Pig Tale. Although it's commendable that MidTangent is breaking from successful past formulas to try something new, its Pig Tale doesn't make you want to squeal with delight.