Neil La Bute’s Fat Pig is a humorous consideration of the fickle and shallow sides of human experience.
Big-boned Helen is jolly, and has learned to laugh at herself to get in before other people do. She has a sharp sense of humour, loves war films, is adventurous, clever and has a strong personal integrity. She meets Tom by chance, and from an awkward conversation a spark ignites between them, and they begin to spend more time together.
Tall, slim Tom is dedicated to his work, achieving well but insecure and susceptible to the opinions of his colleagues. He doesn’t even know if they are people he wants as friends, but he needs to belong to the group, to fit in. He plays basketball with the boys and flirts with the girls from Accounts, but begins to question these activities after growing closer to Helen. Tom’s crisis deepens as he weighs his devotion to Helen against the peer group opposition to the unconventional relationship.
Will O’Mahony stole the show, playing a supporting character that made you want to slap him, with his immature, self-contented embrace of insincerity. O’Mahony took the role and brought memories of every work-shy, judgmental and inconsiderate workmate to life on the stage. His character’s embrace of superficial life and success was apparently deeply entrenched, and made the victimisation of Tom believable. Alicia Osyka brought Helen to life, bringing a depth to the role that made Tom’s choice a deeply conflicting one. Osyka made Helen a well-rounded figure, unconsciously beautiful and attractive in many ways, rather than the token “fatso” parodied so cruelly by Carter and Jeannie.
Brendan Ewing presented Tom as a confused, easily-led type, so concerned about the opinions of others that he has not developed a sense of his own feelings or beliefs. Again, this wish-wash personality needed to be strongly maintained to create the tension and uncertainty at the heart of the piece. Gemma King did her best with a character that seemed created as a caricature, which unfortunately highlighted the complexity of the other three roles by its vacuous, shrilly one-dimensional nature. Equally unfortunately, the caricature of Jeannie seemed cruelly accurate, King bringing a determined insecurity to the possession of an enviably skinny figure.
The use of space and props was clever, in the limited space of the Blue Room Theatre, seating the audience along two sides of the room. The resulting angled movement and blocking allowed office, restaurant and date night scenes to have a fresh immediacy and intimate feel. The movement of props on castors between scenes was well-planned and efficiently executed, with complex changes being effected without time dragging.
Fat Pig is a solid presentation with moments of devastatingly accurate mirroring of real life, which will speak more strongly to some than to others. Fat Pig by Neil La Bute is presented by the Blue Room Theatre and Red Ryder Productions, directed by Emily McLean, produced by Emily McLean, Alison van Reeken and Benj D’Addario and is performed by Alicia Osyka, Brendan Ewing, Georgia King and Will O’Mahony.
Dates: 21 May – 8 June 2013
Duration: 80 mins
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
