FAT PIG.
London.
FAT PIG
by Neil LaBute.
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 1).
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 1hr 55min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632 (transaction fee).
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios (discounted tickets/transaction fee).
Transfers to Comedy Theatre from 11 September 2008
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6637.
www.fatpigtheplay.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 May.
Play that stops when the drama begins.
Expert slimmer Neil LaBute has his fleshly Helen called (not to her face) the title insult; if she’d been named a rhinoceros it would have linked his new play to Eugene Ionesco’s Absurdist drama of that title (revived last year at London’s Royal Court). Ionesco’s point about conformity is made here in the context of free-market America rather than post-war Europe.
Corporate executive Tom wants to eat his lunch anywhere except next to the fat girl on her own; but it’s the only place not occupied. She’s a librarian, witty and pleasant and he falls for her, body as well as mind. It’s love on the rebound from the harsh, glossy, insincere office life represented by former date Jeannie and corporate lizard Carter, whose workload appears to be near-zilch, judging by the time he spends in Tom’s office.
Harsh, glossy insincerity is the centre and substance of this play, teasing its way through Tom’s anxieties over his colleagues finding out about Helen. When they do, and the real drama might begin, the play suddenly ends. Only the final scene, a beach outing where Tom installs himself and Helen as far as possible from the others, truly makes a point about the tensions involved in trying to love someone who is different.
The characters are so wafer-thin, the repeated office-chat so insubstantial, that the piece might be a comedy sketch by a writer who doesn’t know when to end, or how to go on to something more developed. In terms of the show’s subject, it’s an elongated series of snacks instead of a satisfyingly-rounded meal.
Yet it played, several days after opening, to a near-capacity crowd who cheered loudly at the end. So it has its audience. As do the cast members known from the comedy circuit (including the TV loop). All do well, in the author’s own production.
As director, he is clearly happy with their slick surface performances, which never penetrate beneath each performer’s variant of public persona. So there’s little development, though Ella Smith’s Helen at least offers a change from the eternal air-conditioned cool of the others.
Tom: Robert Webb (Trafalgar Studios) Nicholas Burns (Comedy).
Helen: Ella Smith.
Carter: Kris Marshall (Trafalgar Studios) Kevin Bishop (Comedy) .
Jeannie: Joanna Page (to 11 October) Kelly Brook (from 13 October).
Director: Neil LaBute.
Designer: Christopher Oram.
Lighting: Johanna Town.
Sound: Fergus O’Hare.
Dialect coach: Julia Wilson-Dickson.
Associate director: Cat Totty.
2008-06-05 13:36:40