Miss Piggy

We're not shallow, lipstick-and-shoe-obsessed girls here at TFFF Towers, y'know...well, we're not just shallow, lipstick-and-shoe-obsessed girls. Sometimes we expand our cultural horizons and watch the telly, read magazines, or, er, shop for homeware instead of fashion. How deep is that?

On that note, let's talk Live Action Telly, or, as it's more commonly known, theatre. The papers here are currently full of news 'n' reviews for the latest Neil LaBute play to be staged in London. Fat Pig, starring TV's Robert Webb (of the embarrassingly excellent Peep Show), Kris Marshall (of, um, the BT ads), Joanna Page (of the piss-poor Gavin and Stacey, that people will keep insisting is good, even though THEY ARE WRONG (I'll brook no argument on this)), and Ella Smith (of that Holby City episode, one time) as the eponymous 'fat pig'; is basically a theatrical version of Shallow Hal.

Robert Webb's Tom falls for Ella Smith's Helen; his colleagues, Joanna Page's rejected Jeannie, and Kris Marshall's Carter, mock him soundly for dating a fattie. Meanwhile, from what I've gleaned, Helen happily chows down and teaches them all valuable life lessons. Or something. Given it's LaBute, I'm guessing there's not an awful lot of hugging, sharing and learning going on...

Robert Webb and Ella Smith in Fat Pig, at Trafalgar Studios

Now, your correspondents haven't actually read or seen the play, so I can't pass judgement, but I thought I'd share some of the stuff that's floating around, and open it up for discussion.

Here's some choice quotes from the articles and reviews:

"Other people may consider it a problem – they think that if you wanted to be thinner, you could, and there's also that transition we make from fat to lazy. But why are we so judgemental about other people? Helen is insecure – she says she's 'pretty OK', but that's not really OK. Not that that's anything peculiar to people who are overweight."
Neil LaBute
The Independent

"Famed for exploring the heartlessness of America's heartlands, LaBute treats the Tom-Helen affair with superb emotional accuracy. Their first encounter is beautifully done: Helen swathing herself in self-deprecating irony ("big people are jolly, remember?") and Tom, in a don't-mention-the-war manner, desperately trying to avoid all size jokes. All their scenes ring tenderly true, with LaBute showing how two people, in spite of social pressures, can be drawn together by shared tastes, sexual appetites, and matching conversational rhythms."
Michael Billington
The Guardian

"LaBute is often described in interviews as a bear, even a big cuddly bear, and in the programme he makes it clear that he identifies with Helen, the 'overweight, sensible and perfectly lovely heroine of Fat Pig' who, like him, is 'a stress eater'. But as he would agree, there's a rather obvious difference, which is that she's a woman and more easily mocked than most plus-sized men. Indeed, Kris Marshall's Carter can't disguise his hilarity when his office chum, Robert Webb's Tom, falls for Ella Smith's Helen, who stuffs herself with pizza or whatever else is going."
Benedict Nightingale
The Times

"He is uncharacteristically soft on his fat heroine. To be as overweight as Helen is not normal, but LaBute doesn't inquire why she has put on so many surplus pounds, jeopardising both her health and her romantic life. All he's concerned with is the cruelty of the thin mocking the fat, and our lack of courage in accepting human differences."
Charles Spencer
The Telegraph

So, opening this up for discussion -- a change from our remit of fashion, I know, but worth talking about nonetheless. For me, a lot of the reviews (particularly that Telegraph one) focus on 'why is Helen fat?' rather than on the broader (no pun intended) points of the play; preferring instead to judge the character (and therefore the actress) as 'not normal', unhealthy, greedy, all the usual suspects.