At this point, pic momentarily hits its magical-realist mark, as Sinead, through some mystical bond, actually senses him coming. Sinead teams up with another troubled teen, Mags (Tara Lynne O’Neill) meanwhile, the distraught Darren takes a train to bring Sinead home. The local authorities finally put a stop to their “unhealthy” relationship by transferring Sinead to a special institution in Donegal, way up north. The pair takes delight in starting brawls in a local disco, with Sinead dancing with a guy and then secretly signaling Darren to “rescue” her. Given Murphy’s intense, brooding perf as Darren, it becomes clear early on that we are to witness a downward spiral into violence as their insular relationship is threatened by the outside world.
The two 16-year-olds go to bed holding hands through a hole in the adjoining wall of their homes. Unlike the leads in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1950 French classic penned by Jean Cocteau, they are not actually brother and sister.īorn on the same day in the same hospital, and even sharing adjacent cots, Sinead (Elaine Cassidy, from “Felicia’s Journey”) and Darren (Cillian Murphy, from the legit version) nickname themselves “Runt” and “Pig,” snort at passers-by, and imagine themselves Queen and King of Pork City. Starting out with their birth, and later incorporating flashbacks to their childhood and expanding the action from their home in Cork, on the southern coast, pic seeks to draw a complete portrait of the protags’ lives to explain the mysterious bond between them.
Enda Walsh has considerably broadened the scope of his 1996 play, which was set during two nights in the lives of its lead characters.