EDINBURGH 2022: Review: FAT CHANCE, Pleasance Dome

Fat Chance is a theatre show written by and starring Rachel Stockdale about her own experiences throughout her 20s.

Rachel wants to be a performer but she is told that you can only be two things out of northern, fat and female. She shares her rejection emails from drama schools and potential jobs. Many of these thoughtless statments provoke an emotional response from the audience.

Stockdale is a confident performer who tells us from the beginning that fat is not a bad word, it is simply descriptive. She rejects the notion of people telling her "you're not fat, you're beautiful" as if the two are mutually exclusive. When offered acting work she was encouraged to start visiting a personal trainer.

Documenting her trying to fit in with societal norms and bowing to the pressure of diet culture, she takes us through the different things she has tried to change her body shape and the impact it has had on her physically and mentally.

Fat Chance is a powerful play that examines how society views fat women and the pressure it puts on them. It's also a funny and warm piece of theatre with a captivating performer that evokes just the right amount of empathy and fury in the audience.

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