HAD a bacon roll for breakfast this morning? Or what about a nice pair of pork chops for dinner?

If you have, chances are you will re-think your culinary habits when you see Snout, this week’s Oran Mor play written by Welsh playwright Kelly Jones.

Snout tells the story of three pigs Viv, Coco and Lacey who find themselves in the back of a van because they have had to be removed from their usual pen for health reasons.

But now they’re being decanted to a fresh new pen. Or are they?

“That’s the question,” says Sheffield-born Claire, smiling.

“We have to wait and find out what happens to them.”

We do, although it won’t spoil the plot too much to reveal the pigs are in fact on their way to the slaughterhouse.

And we realise time is running out for them. The heat is unbearable and they are desperate to escape.

Yet, while these three central characters are pigs, played by Claire Cage, Michele Gallagher and Sally Reid, the animals take on almost complete human characteristics.

Claire’s character, Coco, is a rather intense pig. She has a history. Coco is an anarchist who wants to leave a legacy that’s more than just skin deep.

Determined to avoid the plate she hatches a master escape plan.

Sally Reid plays Viv, the soft-centred pig with the mothering instincts.

“She’s not any older than the rest, but she has taken on that role,” says Claire. “She’s a carer.”

Michele Gallagher plays Lacey, the actress pig. “She almost made it for the auditions into Babe,” says Claire, smiling. “She’s very glamourous and confident.”

The play reveals how the different characters react so differently to their situations.

Pragmatist Viv and actress Lacey aren’t the escaping kind and they reckon they can’t have Coco muddying the little time they have left to reminisce of the good old days.

But of course the surreal comedy is to ensure the audience come to think about animal welfare. It examines why we slaughter animals for fashion and food and questions the ethics in doing so.

Thankfully, Claire practises what she preaches. She’s been a vegetarian since her early teens when she realised what was going into sausage meat at the time.

“I seem to remember it was donkey bums or something like that,” she recalls.

“And I recall being handed a burger at a fete and thinking ‘I don’t want to eat this. I can’t’.’ And I just threw it over my shoulder into a bush.

“I haven’t eaten meat since.”

But she has to cook it for her two sons, who haven’t picked up on her vegetarian ways.

“I can’t force my beliefs on them,” she says. “It’s up to them to make up their own minds.”

Has she ever played an animal before?

“I don’t think so,” she says, taking a moment to consier. “No, not even in panto. But I did play a sausage once in a TV advert.”

How do you harness your inner sausage?

“There wasn’t a lot of words,” she says laughing. “I think I just had to be a sausage.”

The cast of Snout are a terrifically talented trio. Sally Reid and Michele Gallagher are two of Scotland’s top theatre actors.

And Claire brings a vast range of experience to the Play, Pie and a Pint series.

The actress has appeared in countless television productions such as Doctors, Waterloo Road, Coronation Street and Casualty.

Claire appeared at Oran Mor last year playing a woman in a catatonic state who flits in and out of reality, offering a terrific, nuanced performance.

“And now I’m a pig,” says the actress who moved to Wales to study drama in 1990 and never left.

“But that’s what I love about acting. You never know the challenge you’re about to take on next.

She adds; “And hopefully this is a play that will provoke thought.”

Claire has seen a lot of Scotland recently, working on a new film Moon Dogs alongside Jamie Sives. It’s a rites of passage tale featuring two young men on a journey between the north of England the Highlands.

The film has been running at festivals over the summer and is awaiting a general release.

“Let’s hope it gets the release,” she says. “It’s a lovely film with a great cast. I had such a good time filming it in Scotland.”

Meantime, Claire is concentrating on playing a pig.

But itl be interesting to see if the message of the play transmits to Claire’s co-stars.

“They had a bacon roll this morning,” says Claire of Sally and Michele, shaking her head and grinning.

“Hopefully appearing in the play will shift their thinking.

Snout is a co-production with Sherman Cymru Theatre in Wales, who also run a successful Play, Pie and a Pint series.

• Oran Mor, until Saturday.