Fat Pig - A Review and Insight by Kay S

A Thoughtprovoking Masterpiece

Written inspired by the play, “Fat Pig” directed by Puneet Gupta

“The things that make us different need to also be perceived as the things that makes us beautiful.” - Marie Southard Ospina on Body shaming

This above quote that I read once could not be more relevant and apt for the state of ruthless prejudice that we see around us today.  The world we exist in has become such a shallow and callous contraption of a Universe, far away from the one that the creator had in mind, so much that it beguiles us human beings to pretend, persevere, and precociously try to mold ourselves and fit into how the world likes to see or perceive us.  This is the premise of a wonderful and brilliant play that I had the opportunity to see on May 5, 2019 at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore that inspired me to write a review on this amazing play, Fat Pig directed by Puneet Gupta with Shatarupa Bhattacharya and Avinash Mudappa playing the lead roles.

Fat Pig is based on the original American play by Neil LaBute, which premiered Off-Broadway in the year 2004 and won many accolades and laurels for the same.  The story line of play is based on the romantic relationship between a plus-size woman, Helen and a young corporate professional man, Tom who becomes a butt of everybody’s jokes, especially his friend and colleague, Carter who denigrates his girlfriend calling her a “Fat Pig.” The replication of this American play in the Indian scenario, a production of Mad Hats Theatre directed by Puneet Gupta was a brilliantly directed piece with acting par excellence by all the actors who carried off each of their roles and dialogues with panache.

Fat Pig tells you a story of Tom, a stereotypical businessman in a large city in the US who falls in love with Helen, a plus-sized librarian named Helen.  They meet at a diner during lunchtime where they start speaking to each other.  Tom is rather smitten by Helen’s brash way of describing herself and her way of joking about her own appearance at the same time very comfortable in her own skin.  She has a devil-may-care attitude and her nonchalant acceptance of how the world view her intrigues him leading him to request her for her number and start dating her.  The relationship goes on to becoming quite a serious one amidst Tom being bullied by his friend and colleague, Carter along with running into a rough patch with another colleague and ex-girlfriend, Jeannie who he had been dating on and off.  There is a strange turn of events when Tom goes out with Helen on their first date on the pretext of having a business dinner with a client. He ends up bumping into Carter who comes there to check up on Tom suspecting that he has lied.  That chance meeting of sorts or the conspiracy of Carter to expose Tom and ridicule him becomes a thorn in Tom’s side eventually leading to a fall out with Jeannie at work.  Meanwhile, a part of Tom although he loves Helen seems to be ashamed of his relationship for he is hesitant to go out with her or introduce her to any of his friends.  This goads Helen to question his intentions and in order to smooth her ruffled feathers, Tom takes her to the office dinner, however, he keeps her away from all his colleagues and friends.  All hell breaks loose when Helen confronts him and the play ends in an extremely sad way where Tom confesses to Helen that he is not man enough to face the ridiculing of the society and breaks up with her.

As though the plot of the play in itself was not touching and emotional enough, the impeccable acting of Shatarupa who played Helen, Avinash who played Tom, Varun who played Carter, and Dhanya who played Jeannie drove one to tears.  I was so in awe of how beautiful the sets were in the first place, everything an object of perfection taking us literally to the scene as though we exist in it.  To top it all, the chemistry between Avinash and Shatarupa who played their roles so perfectly evoked such strong emotions and reactions from the audience that had me literally bawling even after the play ended.  Obesity is indeed a challenge and a widespread cause for concern across the world today.  India seems to have caught up with this in an extremely negative manner.  As such India as a country and a society has always been caught up in its prejudices regarding sizes, colors, and all else that is irrelevant in any relationship.  Having said that, it is what it is and the need of the hour is to “Hold the bull by the horns” so to speak or to address the writing on the wall.  The only way to do it would be to accept and address that there is an issue that is existent where people are very prejudiced regarding fat and thin, fair and dark skin, beautiful and ugly and all other attributes they could think of that exists in people which however is irrelevant beyond imagination.

Theatre has always been a catalyst in evoking, inciting, and encouraging changes in the society by bringing to fore existing social concerns, addressing stigma of a hypocritical world, and the prejudices that exist for centuries.  Theatre is also a great expression of the soul which brings out the best in actors to portray their chosen roles to the hilt and inspire an audience to be the change that they would like to see.  “Fat Pig” was one such show for me and I am sure the audience who saw it will resonate my thoughts and beliefs in the same manner.  The physical appearance of a person or the lack of it must never be the benchmark set aside to predict the future of any relationship or the attributes of any human being for that matter.  One can never tell what the other is going through until they have walked in their footsteps and it is very denigrating, insulting, and callous for anyone to comment or judge anybody based on their physical appearance.  I laud the efforts and hard work put in by the entire team of Fat Pig, and I thank the director for having staged this play shedding light on one of the most devastating psychological trauma youngsters experience, especially the women and girls in our country.  More power to the entire Mad Hats Team for their efforts with a special mention to Avinash Muddappa and Shatarupa Bhattacharya who portrayed Helen and Tom brilliantly.

"To all the girls that think you're fat because you're not a size zero, you're the beautiful one; it's society who's ugly." -Marilyn Monroe