“I’d rather Goya robbed me of my sleep than some other arsehole” – a play by Rodrigo Garcia

I’d rather Goya robbed me of my sleep than some other arsehole

By Rodrigo Garcia

Gate Theatre, Notting Hill –  until 29th March 2014

I’d rather Goya is a 50-minute monologue; but don’t be put off – this is an unconventional, hard hitting piece with live piglets. Rodrigo Garcia aims to challenge traditional theatre norms in this tale of a man experiencing a breakdown.

The action starts with the man, intensely played by Steffan Rhodri, asleep in a small set resembling his kitchen or was it a camper van? The set turns on its side, accompanied by loud traffic noises to simulate the man’s mental torment. He has fallen on hard times – his wife is gone and he’s left with two young sons played by the piglets. He gets all his cash together and decides that he will take his sons on a road trip to the Prado, in Madrid, and on the way they will experience alcohol, sex and drugs – or as much as Euro 5,000 will let them. The ultimate goal is to break into the Prado and see the Goya paintings – more dark and sinister parallels with his emotional anguish. However the piglets, craving a normal childhood, spend most of the time protesting that Disneyland would be their preferred destination. Goya versus Disneyland starts to represent harsh reality versus escapism. Despite being so young they are portrayed, through the man’s dialogue, as being extremely intelligent and even spouting off in German when the philosopher appears.

The piece is wonderfully executed with toys used for all the props and peripheral characters. The dialogue is really intense but the piglets, cleverly, provide light relief with their small trotters skidding over the white tiles and somehow managing not to knock over the model city that has been carefully laid out to represent Madrid. The audience is intrigued and, when the 50 minutes is up, you are left wanting more.