'Fat Pig' Cooks Up Food For Thought

Fat Pig by Neil LaBute

Paul Melone, Director; Janie E. Howland, Scenic Design; Gail Astrid Buckley, Costume Design; Jeff Adelberg, Lighting Design; Nathan Leigh, Original Music & Sound Design; Maureen Lane, Production Stage Manager

CAST

Helen.....Liliane Klein

Tom.......James Ryen

Carter....Michael Daniel Anderson

Jeannie...Laura Latreille

Performances through April 7, 2007 at SpeakEasy Stage Company

Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts

Box Office 617-933-8600 or www.bostontheatrescene.com  

Fat Pig.  Quite a title.  Playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute has made quite a name for himself by focusing on subjects that make most of us downright uncomfortable.  In his first major work In the Company of Men, two male co-workers lament that it is no longer a man's world and set out to find a vulnerable woman to wine, dine, and then cruelly dump to regain some "dignity" for their gender.  In Fat Pig the male protagonist is not on a mission to inflict harm, but his lack of self-knowledge and ego strength causes him to stumble, and eventually fall, down that slippery slope.

Director Paul Melone and the SpeakEasy Stage Company present the New England premiere of LaBute's 2004 Off-Broadway hit in a solid production with a strong cast.  Three of the four actors make their SpeakEasy debut with only Laura Latreille having been on this stage before.  I hope the others will choose to return before long.  Each of them inhabited their characters more broadly than they were written, digging into dark corners and scraping out many hidden morsels of their personalities.

The premise of the story is that hot-looking hunk Tom (James Ryen) meets overweight, gregarious Helen at a lunch counter.  They hit it off, flirt a bit, and then begin to date.  Tom's office pals Carter (Michael Daniel Anderson) and Jeannie, who he is "sort of" dating, learn about his dalliance and react with chiding and ridicule.   Jeannie (Latreille) is dumbfounded that he would throw her over for someone less attractive, while Carter just rides him mercilessly because he is a total ass.  Tom and Helen increase their intimacy and their feelings grow stronger, but she comments on their isolation.  As the play and the relationship progress, Carter and Jeannie ratchet up the taunting and Tom feels pressure from both ends.  Everything comes to a head when he brings Helen to the office beach party and finds himself smack in the middle of his two worlds colliding. 

Helen raises the issue of her size in their first meeting and lets Tom (and us) know that she has dealt with it and prefers to face it head on. She cautions him not to be afraid, foreshadowing where this might lead.  Helen has a good head on her broad shoulders and knows better than Tom what challenges lie ahead.  However, she also has a "big" laugh which he thinks is "terrific" and he likes who he is when he is with her.  Notwithstanding these facts, Tom prevaricates with his friends about Helen, and finds it hard to be honest with her about his growing ambivalence.

When they are together, Tom tells Helen that he adores her, wants her, and eventually that he is falling hard for her.  He seems to be what he appears to be; that is, a nice, good-looking guy who likes her for her heart and her humor.  The conflict that makes the play work is his inner turmoil.  Riddled with self-doubt, he can't trust his feelings and instincts against the warning cries of his friends.  He wants to see himself as a stand-up guy, but is compelled to acknowledge his fears and weaknesses in the face of strong peer pressure.   

While Tom struggles with figuring out who he is, Helen has already done the work to be at peace with herself.  From the beginning, she is self-aware and straightforward, although somewhat guarded based on past experience.  Her only fear seems to be that Tom will turn out to be like all the other guys, but she allows herself to trust and open up to him in new ways.  In return, she requires honesty.

If Tom and Helen could live in a bubble or on a deserted island, they'd have a better chance to work through their issues together.  However, in the real world and in the Fat Pig world, there are many outside agitators who have an impact on our intimate relationships, if we let them.  LaBute's antagonists are incredibly antagonistic! Spouting the message that people are not comfortable with difference (stick to your own kind), Carter is the devil's disciple who verbally wrestles Tom with no holds barred.  He may be the guy who Tom doesn't want to be, but he's the guy holding the mirror and forcing Tom to look at himself.

As for Jeannie, I don't know why Tom is attracted to her at all.  She may have a slender figure, but her face is contorted in a perpetual scowl and she has a trashy mouth.  She is bitter, spiteful, and all-consumed with good looks and the entitlement thereof.   Behind it all, she is a scared little girl masquerading as competent and self-assured.  And her attraction to Tom is because that's the way "it should be" ? they both look good, so they belong together in her view of the world.

Fat Pig starts out light and funny, but like most good comedy has a strong element of tragedy.  It explores themes such as standing up for what you believe and questions what acceptable prejudice is (is there any such thing?).  It provides a treatise on our culture where social status is often determined by one's appearance (read: race, sexual preference, disability).  Interestingly, the so-called beautiful people in this play are all unhappy, leading lives of not-so-quiet desperation.  The titular fat pig has more internal and external beauty than the other three combined.        

Liliane Klein (Boston University, '02) is a revelation as Helen.  Granted, hers is the only truly likeable character, but Klein's performance feels authentic from start to finish.  Whether boldly chomping down her big lunch, explaining her lack of shame, or confronting Tom about his reticence, she remains true to the persona she has created.  (Spoiler alert) In the final scene, when Helen sees it all unraveling, she eats, she cries, and resorts to the ultimate plea, "I'd change for you."  Klein enables us to feel this love and Helen's horrible desperation and we ache for her.

Neil LaBute gives us four characters in search of a soul and only one ends up with one.  I doubt that the author could have written this play using other than whiny 20-somethings who are so self-absorbed that they put Bounty towels to shame. It would be interesting to see a sequel and find out how they all turn out.  I imagine that Carter and Jeannie would marry and produce a flock of cynical offspring; Tom joins the Merchant Marines and travels the world in search of himself, avoiding attachments; and Helen finds a partner who is self-actualized and loves her for all the right reasons.  I hope that age and life experience combine to teach them what folly it is to judge people more by their girth than by their gifts. 

 

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