There are no easy answers in Fat Pig, the challenging and provocative play by playwright and film director Neil LaBute, coming to Gist Hall Theatre at Humboldt State beginning September 15.
Tom meets Helen in a crowded restaurant. He is a “handsome guy” in his twenties, doing well in a dull office job. Helen is sweet and funny, a young woman who works in a library, with a great laugh and a taste for war movies. She is “a plus size. Very.”
Tom is charmed enough to ask her out. And worried enough to try hard to keep Helen a secret from his peers in the office. But his obnoxious friend Carter is relentless. And Jeannie, his ex-maybe-girlfriend from Accounting, is more than curious.
So when Tom and Helen fall in love, it leads to revelations about all the characters— their needs and lives, their beliefs and compulsions, their strengths and weaknesses.
There’s comedy and drama—and strong language. Because of the uncompromising dialogue, the issues involved, and the characters and situations many can identify with (even when they don’t want to), it’s the kind of play that people tend to talk about.
“The playwright doesn’t mince words,” said director Michael Thomas. “He gives us the viewpoints of each of the characters quickly and cleanly. So we can think about our own attitudes—am I like Tom? Am I like Carter, or Jeannie or Helen? If the audience goes through this process of thinking about all the issues the play raises, then that’s a successful evening in the theatre.”
The HSU production features Kyle Ryan, Colleen Lacy, Brandon McDaniel and Danielle Cichon. Ryan appeared in M. Butterfly, the play Michael Thomas directed at HSU last year. Ryan also acted opposite Danielle Cichon in Rent at Ferndale Rep.
In addition to writing plays, LaBute is a movie director (Nurse Betty) and screenwriter-director (The Wicker Man.) He wrote and directed film versions of several of his plays (In the Company of Men) including the first play of a trilogy, The Shape of Things (2003) with Gretchen Mol, Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz and Frederick Weller. Fat Pig is the second play in this trilogy dealing with physical appearance. The third, Reasons To Be Pretty, ran on Broadway in 2009.
Fat Pig comes to Gist Hall Theatre at HSU Thursdays through Saturdays September 15-17 and 22-24 at 7:30 p.m., and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sept. 25. $10/$8, with limited number of free seats to HSU students at each performance, from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Michael Thomas. Produced by HSU Dept. of Theatre, Film & Dance. http://HSUStage.blogspot.com.