7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Too True!, October 18, 2005
This review is from: Fat Pig: A Play (Paperback)
This play can really hit home if you have ever dated outside of your league. The pressure to date some one your friends approve of weighs heavy on the character Tom. Societal pressure to be perfect and be with the perfect person is explored and so worth your time and money to go on the journey. I completely recommend this play!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring, January 3, 2012
This review is from: Fat Pig: A Play (Paperback)
As an overweight woman, this play truly struck home for me. As an actress, it inspired me to continue on with the themes of this play and to write my own one woman show about obesity for women. Excellent play! Must read.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Neil LaBute Fan, September 28, 2010
This review is from: Fat Pig: A Play (Paperback)
I saw this play in the theatre before I read it. And I read it after I saw the play because I am always curious about how stories translate from one medium to another, in this case from the page to the stage. Though, unlike a novel that becomes a movie, a play is written with the intent to stage but a lot of what happens in the theatre involves more than the writing. Actors' interpretation, director's vision, lighting, set design, etc. - all of the colloborative theatrical arts play a role in how I experience a play.
So.
I wanted to see how the WRITING would stand on its own.
I think part of the reason why I give this play three stars is not because Labute didn't deliver on the page necessarily. To be fair, a lot of the shock value of the play's conclusion (as in final scene) was gone. I left the theatre with my mouth hanging open, deeply disturbed on a variety of levels (in that thought-provoking indie-artsy way). So when I read the play, I already knew what was coming and so I was reading less for the story and more for the execution.
I think it works. Though I will say, on the page, Fat Pig got a bit tiring when the lovers were not in a scene. The supporting characters' viscious shenanigans begin to wear page after page, like a high pitched siren. It's still kinda tough even when humans are actually speaking these lines,but at least there is something to look at to break the monotony.
Would I have given this, say a four or five star rating had I read the play first vs. seeing it? Well, I'll never know. But I'm thinking that what makes the play work is it's shock value. And once you know the "punchline," it doesn't have staying power strictly as writing - though it absolutely does thematically. I could, by contrast, read "Streetcar Named Desire" a million times and still find something juicy to savor each time, even though I know the play's shocking conclusion. Can't say the same thing about READING this play.
Now, LaButes's play The Shape of Things - did work for me as a multiple read AFTER I saw the play (as a movie)I would give that one five stars. I think the characters were more fleshed and therefore more engaging.
STILL. I love this guy. I mean, you know, his writing. And if you can't see Fat Pig on stage, then YEAH, read it.
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