Description:
Entertaining, emotional and accessible...Pig Heart Boy will tug at the toughest of heart-valves. --A Youngish Perspective
Cameron is thirteen, and all he wants is to be normal--have friends, go to school, and dive to the bottom of his local swimming pool. But he desperately needs a heart transplant and time is running out.
When he's finally offered a new heart, Cameron must choose between a pig's heart that works...or a human heart that doesn't. How far will he go to get his life back?
Based on Malorie Blackman's novel of the same name, Winsome Pinnock's adaptation of Pig Heart Boy is hilariously funny, intelligent and thought-provoking and stays admirably close to the original book yet energises the story in leaping from page to stage (Everything Theatre).
Brief description:
Winsome Pinnock is an award-winning British playwright of Jamaican heritage. Her plays include: Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2020; National Theatre, 2021); and Leave Taking (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre / Contact Theatre Manchester / Belgrade Theatre Coventry / Lyric Hammersmith / National Theatre, 1986), among others. She adapted Malorie Blackman's novel Pig Heart Boy for the stage (Unicorn Theatre / Sheffield Theatres / Children's Theatre Partnership, 2025). Her work was won many accolades, including the Alfred Fagon Award (2018), the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama (2022), the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Special Commendation (1990), the George Devine Award (1991), the Pearson Award for Best New Play (1991), and the Unity Theatre Trust Award (1989).
Review Quotes:
A fleet, funny, psychologically true adaptation...surprisingly sophisticated storytelling, cheeky humour, and a potent emotional wallop.
--WhatsOnStage
A remarkable theatre piece, not just dramatising but also illuminating and developing the concepts in the book...Winsome Pinnock's skillful and sympathetic adaptation is truthful, convincing and also very funny.
--West End Best Friend
Vivid and thought-provoking...Pinnock's adaptation excels, providing Cameron with a theatrically surreal inner dream life...a heartwarming sense of hard-won wisdom and love.
--The Stage
Beautiful...hilarious, thoughtful and special...presents some very complex matters, emotionally and ethically.
--Theatre and Tonic
A thumping adaptation...Pinnock perfectly captures the rich detail and descriptions in Blackman's story...funny, immensely enjoyable, and certainly full of heart.
--Liam O'Dell, journalist
A heartfelt show that is also fantastically funny...the kind of family theatre you don't often see; tech celebratory, vivacious, sharp of wit and full of heart.
--Reviews Hub