Rodeo clowns risk being gored by angry bulls at work every day but they have it easy compared to their compatriots in ‘The Long Pigs’.
The show’s title is a reference to cannibalism, and the three performers on stage are dedicated to eradicating red nosed clowns from the world. Unfortunately they've missed one, and throughout the performance they search the audience before turning on each other in search of that last red nosed clown.
Their dull, grimy appearance befits their status as fallen clowns and these grim butchers may use the language of clowning in their repetition and pratfalls but it is inverted in the service of evil. The laughs in ‘The Long Pigs’ are more likely to come from unease than the performers’ antics.
But the scariest moments of the show are when they perform a parody of more traditional clowning, a hideously distorted act that provides a hint of their motivation. Ultimately, the story of cannibal clowns is not one that is likely to have a happy resolution but this ending is particularly abrupt and unfulfilling.
Pop culture is peppered with evil clowns. But they rarely exist in the same universe as their more harmless cousins, and they have never been quite as terrifying as ‘The Long Pigs’.
