Playwright: Neil LaBute
At: Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway
Phone: 773-549-1815; $20-$25
Runs through: Oct. 29
By Jonathan Abarbanel
A handsome and athletic man in his late 20s falls for a plus-sized woman but allows the jealousy and ridicule of his friends and co-workers to destroy the relationship. Helen ( Deborah Hearst ) , a librarian, is completely comfortable in her skin, confident without being forward, undemanding without being passive and disarmingly candid. No wonder Tom ( Darrell W. Cox ) finds her emotionally refreshing compared to his usual circle of corporate climbers. But he's embarrassed to acknowledge his attraction to her.
Tom's co-worker, Carter ( Eric Burgher ) , is the devil almost literally. Jocular and manipulative, he tempts Tom with the allure of youthful beauty and sexual conquest over contentment of the soul. Tom's other co-worker, his former fling Jeannie ( Katie Crawford ) , is a ball-busting termagant who takes Tom's fat friend as a personal insult of the how-could-you-leave-me-for-that-thing type. Tom himself is an ingratiating bowl of Jell-O. It's not that he can't think independently; it's that he has no will of his own. Intellectually he understands, but emotionally—ultimately—he cannot take the leap of faith necessary for his own happiness.
Playwright Neil LaBute pours this into a 100-minute play with punchy and honest dialogue, sparked by his keen ear for dead-on realistic speech. Director Joe Jahraus' nearly-perfect cast of three Profiles veterans and one debut artist ( Hearst ) all deliver the goods in gripping performances. The only thing missing is subtlety and mystery, and that's LaBute's fault. His writing is so forthright that there is no subtext. Every last thought or feeling of the characters is spoken out loud, with the result that you know very early on exactly how it will end. When the end arrives, LaBute abruptly stops the play rather than creating a theatrical wrap-up of story and characters. His strength is situation and dialogue, not structure.
LaBute has a reputation for being misogynistic when actually he's about revealing what jerks most men are. In Fat Pig, that point is writ large and it's not exclusively a hetero point. I had a lover for over four years whom I was embarrassed to introduce to some of my friends and family. He had the looks of a model but he was too gay-acting, or so I thought. That wasn't the reason for our breakup, but I wonder what I would have done if we'd remained together. He was, in effect, some distorted and external embodiment of my personal fears and insecurities. Fat Pig reminds me of that.
The show's design team creates a half-dozen locales within a tiny arena stage, proving that small and inexpensive doesn't have to look cheap or incomplete. The work of John P. Sundling ( set ) , Ron Seeley ( lights ) , Eric Burgher ( sound ) and Will Morgan ( projections ) is clean, contemporary and versatile.
