Let's play: "FAT PIG"

(Yeah...he went there)


"Fat Pig" poster

This week's play is Neil LaBute's* "Fat Pig." Yeah, just by the title...well and the posters, you can tell where this one is going. For some reason, I could not figure out the names of actors/actresses in our cast.
I think one was Joanna Page from "Love Actually," but I can't even say I'm 100 percent about that.

Let's be ironic here, and rate this a scale of 1-5* Keira Knightley's. By the way, the Pirates of the Caribbean star, who's oft-accused of being anorexic, has a new plan to put on some weight. Uhh...

TWO AND A HALF KNIGHTLEY'S out of five.
Written by Neil LaBute
Now playing at The Comedy Theatre
Run Time: About an hour and 40 minutes.


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That's definitely not the cast we saw. This male lead is way too hairy. Definitely not our cast.

"Fat Pig"
By Matt Levin

Fat Pig is a play about an average Joe who starts dating a really fat chick.

If that line makes you feel uncomfortable, then Neil LaBute's play, going on at the Comedy Theatre, might be difficult to stomach. On the surface, it's a no-holds-barred hour and a half of ripping on the overweight lead (many by the lead about herself, before anyone else has the chance). It's a comedy. With a heart, of course.

And while the ending is both shocking and brilliant, the rest simply isn't funny enough.

The diluted plot about an attractive man who falls for his "big-boned" beauty has tons of potential. But the jokes only work when they cross the line, and frankly LaBute's script doesn't go far enough. Throughout certain scenes, audience members are left feeling sitting their uncomfortably. Plus, if those jokes did hit harder it'd help emphasize the underlying theme - how do you follow your own ideals when society keeps telling you something different?

It's a tough question, and a much deeper one than the cliche "it's on the inside that counts" theme that gets emphasized for the first three-quarters fo the play. The leads do a fine job. And "the best friend" character, a misognyst named Carter, is easily the funniest character. "The ex" character just comes off as one of those crazy, stalker caricatures, who also has trouble doing an American accent.

The play does have its hilarious moments and its introspective ones. Those instances, however, are too rare to sustain "Fat Pig's" wafer-thin plot.*

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Foot notes

*I did some research on Neil LaBute while writing this. What I learned is while he might be a pretty okay playwright, he sucks as a director. This is the dude that directed the recently-released Lakeview Terrace. His previous film before that: The Wicker Man - the most unintentially funny film of all time.

*Of course, five Keira Knightley's equals only one average-sized person. So maybe I should've done this on a scale of 1-10.

*Ergh, looking back this review there's a few "puns not intended." "Tons of potential" and "sustain," both unintended. But it's hard not to overanalyze when reviewing something called Fat Pig.