It turns out, even when you live on a pig farm, a lot of things can happen in the kitchen.
“Pig Farm,” an adult comedy with a gag or bit for everyone, according to director Scott Dunlap, opens today for the first of three weekends on the Circle Stage of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre.
The play, he said, written by Greg Kotis (playwright of the musical “Urinetown”) should not be confused with “Animal Farm.”
“It’s not that esoteric or deep,” Dunlap said.
In the story, the pig farm belongs to preoccupied Tom and his wife, Tina, who has a hankering for the hired man, Tim, who has been given the assignment to count the farm’s 15,000 pigs. About that time, gun-toting Environmental Protection Agency official Teddy arrives to muddy the water.
Yes, their names all start with “T,” and more characters whose names begin with “T” and who are never seen — all voiced by the four-person cast — are waiting in the wings.
“It has a large offstage environment” because much of it occurs in the kitchen as in other plays such as “Crimes of the Heart” and “Death of a Salesman, said Dunlap. “A lot of action” — including the life and times of the pigs — “happens offstage. It’s very interesting.”
While “Pig Farm” mocks as many things as possible as it unfolds, according to the director, it does so with different styles of humor.
“The writing is actually quite clever, quite smart,” Dunlap said.
Its message, he said, is not liberal or conservative but is interesting. The message, he said, suggests Americans believe their food should be as cheap as possible but don’t necessarily want to know how it got that way.
“It gets to the conservation end,” Dunlap said, “but it lets (audiences) take from it what they want.”
He said the play “is a real actor’s piece” because it requires everything to look effortless, calls for “a lot of different acting styles,” has a lot of wordplay and is difficult to memorize.
Dunlap said one aspect of the play he likes is that it couldn’t be a movie.
“It has to be experienced as theater,” he said. “They ruin a lot of things by turning them into movies. It’s the way a story has to be told. You must see the piece for that reason.”
IF YOU GO
* What: “Pig Farm.”
* When: 8 p.m. today, Saturday, June 4-5 and June 11-12.
* Where: Circle Stage, Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St.
* Admission: $15 adults, $10 students.
* Phone: 267-8534.
* Website: www.theatrecentre.com.