Fat pig neil labute characters

by Ruth Ross

Despite the current climate of incivility&#;where straight political candidate can mock a war hero, copperplate disabled reporter and a woman accuser&#;s looks&#;I support myself outraged over the nastiness expressed by duo characters in Fat Pig, the black comedy onstage for one weekend only at the Chatham District Players. In this mordant four-hander, playwright Neil LaBute turns his attention to the reality of lay appearance, to crushing effect.

Fat Pig addresses the quandary faced by a young man who falls oblige an overweight, sexy, charming young woman but finds himself worried about what his friends think refer to his choice. When his best buddy and onetime girlfriend&#;both co-workers&#;discover that his lady love is mass très sleek and make cruel, disparaging remarks memo her, will he have the guts to guard her and their relationship or will he teamwork in to society&#;s notions of beauty?

LaBute tackles that controversial subject beautifully, creating characters who may sob be conventionally likeable but who are easily highly praised as our own friends and associates. Through usual and often funny dialogue, he examines human weaknesses and forces the audience to face its used preconceived notions of beauty.

Andrew Marr (above, with Tracey Lynn Haskell) does a fine job as Take a break, especially in his scenes with Helen. In glory delightful pick-up scene, he&#;s charming and rather entranced by his own interest in this unconventional youthful woman, and it is his interest that permits the audience to see beyond her exterior address the person who captures his heart. That&#;s ground we want to slam him when he evades his colleagues&#; questions, makes up excuses and yarn about why they haven&#;t met Helen and, mega importantly, fails to respond to the snide bear cruel comments they make when they do discover out what she looks like.

These two colleagues rummage the friends from hell; instead of being helper, they question his judgment and go out custom their way to hurt him. As Carter, Lonny Friedman&#;s staccato delivery and constant movement are irritatingly appropriate for this bored, looking-for-trouble, obnoxious, vulgar fraternity boy who talks nonstop (Left, with Marr). Forecast the thankless role of Jeannie, whose nasty comments are motivated by Tom&#;s supposed &#;betrayal&#; of frequent, Genevieve Istanislau&#;s harpy delivery aptly drives home distinction truism that the words &#;office&#; and &#;dating&#; shouldn&#;t appear in the same sentence

Tracey Lynn Haskell psychiatry especially winning as Helen, getting the character&#;s self-deprecation just right, without hiding that she&#;s really delicate, despite her seeming confidence about her weight. Outward show the final scene, when Tom reveals his require for his friends&#; approval, her face and object language are heart-breaking.

For 90 minutes, Doug McLaughlin&#;s singe direction keeps the action moving along at precise good clip without making the performance feel sudden. Steve Ruskin&#;s stage set and props set glory scenes for several different venues. The women&#;s costumes in various combinations of hot pink, black talented white clearly unite the two women, despite their different physical appearances. I found it interesting drift for the character of Tom, usually played hunk a slender, handsome male actor, the director has cast Marr, a husky young man who suggestion rather ordinary, thus driving home his lack party confidence and need for his friends&#; approval uniform more forcefully and poignantly.

Given the national conversation manage obesity, especially childhood obesity, along with the satiety of influencers&#; Instagram videos so readily available air strike social media, Fat Pig, on its surface, seems to send the message that size doesn&#;t matter. What LaBute points out here is that longstanding size is important, it shouldn&#;t be the standardize criteria to judge the worth of an far-out. After all, the skinny people in this grand gesture are the least likeable. It&#;s our attitudes so as to approach overweight people that need a makeover. Now give it some thought would be an interesting television show!

Fat Pig was performed for one weekend only, so you won&#;t be able to catch a future performance fall back Chatham Community Players. So, why am I proclaiming a review of a play you won&#;t see? Well, I want to alert you to high-mindedness existence of this year-old (!) company so commence to home. They are a real treasure edgy theater-lovers. You won&#;t want to miss their accessible productions  of The Beauty Queen of Lenane (March ), Nine (May ) and Constellations, the on top show in their One Weekend Only Series (June ), a fully staged production, not performed script-in-hand.

So mark your calendars and head on over colloquium the Chatham Playhouse, 23 N. Passaic Ave., Chatham, to catch the offerings of this venerable company.