About the Play:

Fat Men in Skirts has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and Male Monologues.

Fat Men in Skirts is a full-length comedy by Nicky Silver. Absurdist? Farce? Courtroom drama? Love story? One twisted psychological experience. Fat Men in Skirts opens with a mother and son stranded on a deserted island. In his first play, Nicky Silver weaves a tale of what happens when the structure of society is stripped away and we are confronted with the nature of the monkeys.

Fat Men in Skirts follows four characters, exploring what makes them who they are and do the things they do. Each act is done in an entirely different theatrical style. Absurd, then farce, and then finally a court room drama. After their plane crashes, shoe fetishist Phyllis and her stuttering preppy son, Bishop, are stranded on a desert island for five years. During their stay, Bishop loses his stutter and is transformed into a feral savage. Phyllis devolves from a glib, callused sophisticate to a helpless, addled shell. The title is a reference to a recurring dream she has about an obese transvestite, who morphed into multiple fat men in cages. Left to fend for themselves, they dine on the bodies of the dead passengers and eventually become lovers. At home, Phyllis' husband and Bishop's father, movie director Howard, holds out for news of his family along with his young, sexy mistress, Pam. When the savagely transformed Bishop and Phyllis are returned to civilization, the transition back to normalcy proves challenging for all. Fat Men in Skirts is a eccentric and darkly funny that comedy explores human fragility under the most extreme conditions. It contains themes of murder, cannibalism and incest: it is not for the faint-hearted.

Fat Men in Skirts premiered in 1998 at the Vortex Theatre off-off-Broadway in New York City. It was subsequently produced in 1991 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male (flexible casting)

What people say:

"…very, very funny … a deep and anguished vision. Silver never met a pain he couldn't laugh at." — Washington Post

"…Mr. Silver shows us how thin the line is between normality and freakishness. It's a lesson worth heading, imparted with genuine hilarity." — Washington Times

"If Fat Men in Skirts weren't so funny, it could never reduce you to tears." — Associated Press

"Shock effects in the service of genuine pathos, Fat Men in Skirts offers grunge galore: lipstick eating, throat cutting, baby munching. No question, Nicky Silver's twisted domestic drama still detonates a ton of anger – at mother love that turns carnivorous and father love eroded by infidelity." — Chicago Reader

About the Playwright:

Nicky Silver is an award-winning American playwright. He exploded onto the American theatre scene in October of 1993, with the off-Broadway opening of his play Pterodactyls (Oppenheimer Award, Kesselring Award, Drama Desk nomination, Outer Critic's Circle nomination). His plays have been produced extensively in New York City as well as across Europe and as far away as South Korea.