About the Play:

Winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding off-Broadway Play

Fat Pig is a full-length comedic drama by Neil LaBute. What happens when a young, handsome executive meets the love of his life and she's more than he ever imagined… about seventy-five pounds more? In the age of no carbs, nip tucks and extreme makeovers, can their relationship endure the societal pressures that surround them?

Fat Pig takes a tough yet humorous look at society's dependence on the superficial. 'Cow.' 'Slob.' 'Pig.' How many insults can you hear before you have to stand up and defend the woman you love? Tom, a young, corporate go-getter, faces just that question when he falls for Helen, a bright, funny, sexy young woman who happens to be "generously proportioned." She challenges his mind and makes him laugh. Trouble is, his friends are laughing too. Forced to defend his new relationship and bear the brunt of insults from this shallow (although shockingly funny) friends and co-workers, finally Tom must come to terms with his own preconceptions of conventional good looks. Neil LaBute's sharply drawn, thought-provoking play not only critiques our slavish adherence to Hollywood ideals of beauty, but also boldly questions our own ability to change what we dislike about ourselves. Fat Pig is the first of a trilogy of plays that continues with The Shape of Things and Reasons to Be Pretty. America's obsession with physical beauty is confronted headlong in this brutal and exhilarating work.

Fat Pig premiered in 2004 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre Off-Broadway in New York City and won the 2005 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. It’s UK premier was in 2008 at the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End and was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional repertory, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 women, 2 men

What people say:

"The most emotional engaging and unsettling of Mr LaBute's plays since BASH... A serious step forward for a playwright who has always been most comfortable with judgmental distance." — The New York Times

"One of Neil LaBute's subtler effort... Demonstrates a warmth and compassion for its characters missing in many of LaBute's previous works [and] balances black humor and social commentary in...beautifully written, hilarious...dissection of how societal pressures affect relationships... Astute and up-to-the-minute relevant." — New York Post

"Will make you squirm in your seat. it's theater without novocaine [from] an author with a uniquely truthful voice." — The Journal News

About the Playwright:

Neil LaBute is an award-winning American playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter. His plays include bash, Reasons to be Pretty (Tony Award nominated for best play), In a Forest, Dark and Deep, and Reasons to be Happy. His films include In the Company of Men (New York Critics' Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmaker Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The Shape of Things, Some Velvet Morning, and Dirty Weekend. He is a 2013 recipient of a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.