(Robert Hurwitt's review ran in the San Francisco Chronicle, 11/7.)
Theater review: A lot to love about 'Fat Pig'
Fat Pig: Drama. By Neil LaBute. Directed by Barbara Damashek. With Jud Williford, Liliane Klein, Alexandra Creighton and Peter Ruocco. Through Dec. 6. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. One hour, 45 minutes. $15-$55. (510) 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org.
Love is a many-splintered and slippery slope in Neil LaBute's harshly named "Fat Pig" at the Aurora Theatre.
Dark takes on the ways the sexes treat each other are only to be expected from the author of "In the Company of Men," "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "The Shape of Things." But in "Fat Pig," LaBute explodes good and bad intentions and peels away layers of shallowness to comic, poignant and mesmerizing effect.
This is LaBute at the best of his bad-boy sensitive mode. "Fat Pig" is a no-holds-barred moralist's look at body-consciousness issues and hypocrisy through the ill-starred romance between the very ordinary, good-looking Tom and smart, funny, plus-size Helen. It was a provocative hit in New York in 2004. Barbara Damashek's Aurora staging is even richer, funnier and more disturbing.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/07/DDOD1AE5KN.DTL&type=performance
(Neil LaBute’s work is included in One on One: The Best Women’s Monologues for the 21st Century, One on One: The Best Men’s Monologues for the 21st Century, and Duo!: The Best Scenes for Two for the 21st Century—all from Applause Books (links to Amazon on this blog.)
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