Playwright Ella Arendelle stars in Wellness at The Butterfly Club.
Directed by George Lazaris and written by its star Ella Arendelle, Wellness presents the impact that repressive social attitudes can have on a person’s everyday life.
Showing at The Butterfly Club as part of their inaugural 1 Act Play Festival, the play is a series of semi-autobiographical vignettes from Arendelle’s lived-experiences in a world where she is held to relentless scrutiny because of her body size.
Wellness explores the fraught social life of a young woman who self-identifies as ‘fat’. It opens with her slim friend ranting about her own food intake with little regard for Ella’s feelings, followed by similar situations where the lead is confronted by fatphobic commentary during social activities. Her friends gush discriminatory sentiments while she sits back aghast or corrects their behaviour. Several additional offhand scenes allow for solo character monologues, whether in Shakespearean-esque prose or talking aloud while on Tinder. Throughout its forty-five minute run, Wellness accounts for hostile social attitudes toward bodies which stand out.
The production was stripped back with little to support the dozen or so vignettes. Wellness needed to adhere to requirements of the 1 Act Play Festival, producing a play up to 60 minutes with minimal sets and props on a 4.5 x 2m stage. Unfortunately, this meant the scenes were not energised with adequate theatrical elements, often leaving one to wonder where or who the characters were as one scene moved to the next. Lack of costume changes made it difficult to track the frequency of actors changing character. Despite restrictions, subtle lighting changes aided the transition into solo monologues from social outing scenes. Nonetheless, the production needed to further leverage the demanded simplicity to ensure a solid conveyance of their social message rather than let it work against them.
The relationship between the characters and the lead accentuated how the most repressive attacks against your personhood can come from the people you love and trust. Arendelle’s sensitive character juxtaposed against her bitter friends, played by three actors rotating characters. For most of the play, her friends speak for her as if reciting the encyclopedia of fatphobia. Arendelle’s lead character takes a few scenes to speak and, when she does, is articulate in highlighting the flaws in their comments. Her nerving silence was euphoric in several poignant moments; namely, getting dressed facing the audience and ripping up a diet book gifted by a friend. Similarly, the supporting actors performed their obnoxious representations with sardonic ability.
Yet, their interactions were not convincing. Her friends were intolerable and one-dimensional while Arendelle was complex and self-aware from start to finish. With little character development, her friends were caricatures – the “shallow skinny girl”, the “sleazy Tinder man” – with their insecurities masked as pettiness. They spoke in gaudy, sarcastic voices dribbling abuse. In contrast, Arendelle always said the right thing in a sincere, soft tone. People in friendships don’t work on opposite ends of the scale like this – each person contributes flaws and strengths which work in fractured harmony rather a group spouting relentless attacks against the woke one. Granted, Arendelle’s stark contrast to the absurd supporting characters would have functioned within the satirical approach if the cruelty of the friends wasn’t seething beyond humour.
If the representation of the lived-experience of larger women was the aim, the play succeeded. Wellness’ insight owes to Arendelle’s interrogation of her own relationship with the world, revealing her experiences to give broader representation to hurtful social attitudes. From every angle, Arendelle was subject to cutting criticism. Each line from her supposed friends was a problematic but somewhat normalised opinion discriminating and dehumanising people with larger bodies. The play portrayed an empathetic view of living with your very existence critiqued to the bone.
Overall, Wellness was a rough outline of how cruelly society treats ‘fat’ people. It portrayed blatant truths but didn’t move into fully crafting its concept or grasping its mission. While pitched as interrogating millennial wellness culture on Instagram by highlighting who is left behind, this promising critique wasn’t fulfilled. Instead, the vignettes repetitively portrayed people bullying their ‘fat’ friend – they appeared nasty without contrast to their more progressive attitudes. Wellness took a pressing social issue to the table without sufficient flesh to feed the hungry audience. Without a resolution to the problems presented, the play was over before it had even started.
Through its quick round of short scenes showcasing sharp acting and detailed dialogue, Wellness diagramed the pervasive hostility toward people with large bodies. The production, character development and conceptualisation could be further crafted to bring the play to another capacity where it not only highlights the hurt caused by social attitudes but seek solutions to make the world a more embracing place for ‘fat’ people.
Rating: 3 stars ★★★
Wellness
Playwright and lead actress: Ella Arendelle
Director: George Lazaris
As part of the 1 Act Play Festival
4-8 March 2019
The Butterfly Club, Melbourne
