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Fat Pig
Fat Pig is a play by Neil LaBute. The play premiered off-Broadway in 2004 and won the 2005 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. The play had its West End premiere in 2008 and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The play involves a romantic relationship between a plus-size woman and a young professional man whose friend denigrates the woman as being "fat". The play was also adapted into an opera in 2022 by composer Matt Boehler.[not verified in body]
In a large city, professional businessman Tom meets overweight librarian Helen in a crowded restaurant at lunch. Tom is taken with Helen's brash acceptance of how people see her and her in-your-face honesty, and they begin dating. After a few weeks, Carter, Tom's best friend at work, suspects that Tom has a new girlfriend. He badgers Tom for details, finally raising the matter in front of Jeannie, a woman from accounting whom Tom had been seeing casually for a while. Jeannie becomes distraught, and Tom admits that he is "sort of" seeing this new woman.
Carter continues his inquiries and, when Tom says he is busy that night, suspects that Tom is going on a date despite his protests that he is going to a business dinner with people from the Chicago branch office. That evening, Carter goes to a restaurant that he knows Tom likes and sees Tom and Helen together. Carter introduces himself to Helen and, when she excuses herself, he berates her as a "fat pig", assuming that Tom would never date anyone like her and that she is in fact from the Chicago office.
Jeannie learns about "the fat cow from Chicago" from gossip with Carter, and later discovers that Chicago hadn't sent anyone for meetings. She confronts Tom, demanding to know where they stand. Tom replies that he is romantically uninterested in her and will remain so, and admits that he was not at a business dinner. Jeannie slaps Tom, hurt that he would pick an obese woman over her. Carter apologizes to Tom for his rudeness about Helen, but, after pestering Tom for a picture, shows it to everyone in the office who laugh at the "fat pig" Tom is dating. Carter tries to convince Tom that he should "stick to his kind".
Meanwhile, Tom and Helen fall deeper in love. Helen informs Tom that she has been offered a better job in another city but does not want to leave him. She asks if she can meet his friends; when he hesitates, she believes that he is ashamed of her weight. Later, Tom takes Helen to his company's beach barbecue, where they become secluded with everyone else making jokes and ridiculing Helen's weight behind her back. Seeing Tom embarrassed and ostracized, Helen gives him an ultimatum: to accept her and defend her to his friends or end their relationship. Tom replies that he cannot handle it and that she should take the other job. They walk away from each other, brokenhearted.
LaBute provides few details about the characters' lives besides the fact that they all work and are approximately the same age group.[citation needed]
Fat Pig premiered off-Broadway in 2004. This was followed by over a dozen productions internationally, between 2006 and 2010, including in London's West End. In 2011 a planned Broadway production was cancelled due to the loss of a key investor.
Fat Pig premiered off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in an MCC Theater production, in previews on November 23, 2004, and officially on December 15. The production was directed by Jo Bonney, with cast Ashlie Atkinson (Helen), Andrew McCarthy (Carter), Jeremy Piven (Tom), and Keri Russell (Jeannie) in her stage debut. This production was hailed as a provocative comedy that made the audience think. David Amsden wrote in New York Magazine:
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Fat Pig
Fat Pig is a play by Neil LaBute. The play premiered off-Broadway in 2004 and won the 2005 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. The play had its West End premiere in 2008 and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The play involves a romantic relationship between a plus-size woman and a young professional man whose friend denigrates the woman as being "fat". The play was also adapted into an opera in 2022 by composer Matt Boehler.[not verified in body]
In a large city, professional businessman Tom meets overweight librarian Helen in a crowded restaurant at lunch. Tom is taken with Helen's brash acceptance of how people see her and her in-your-face honesty, and they begin dating. After a few weeks, Carter, Tom's best friend at work, suspects that Tom has a new girlfriend. He badgers Tom for details, finally raising the matter in front of Jeannie, a woman from accounting whom Tom had been seeing casually for a while. Jeannie becomes distraught, and Tom admits that he is "sort of" seeing this new woman.
Carter continues his inquiries and, when Tom says he is busy that night, suspects that Tom is going on a date despite his protests that he is going to a business dinner with people from the Chicago branch office. That evening, Carter goes to a restaurant that he knows Tom likes and sees Tom and Helen together. Carter introduces himself to Helen and, when she excuses herself, he berates her as a "fat pig", assuming that Tom would never date anyone like her and that she is in fact from the Chicago office.
Jeannie learns about "the fat cow from Chicago" from gossip with Carter, and later discovers that Chicago hadn't sent anyone for meetings. She confronts Tom, demanding to know where they stand. Tom replies that he is romantically uninterested in her and will remain so, and admits that he was not at a business dinner. Jeannie slaps Tom, hurt that he would pick an obese woman over her. Carter apologizes to Tom for his rudeness about Helen, but, after pestering Tom for a picture, shows it to everyone in the office who laugh at the "fat pig" Tom is dating. Carter tries to convince Tom that he should "stick to his kind".
Meanwhile, Tom and Helen fall deeper in love. Helen informs Tom that she has been offered a better job in another city but does not want to leave him. She asks if she can meet his friends; when he hesitates, she believes that he is ashamed of her weight. Later, Tom takes Helen to his company's beach barbecue, where they become secluded with everyone else making jokes and ridiculing Helen's weight behind her back. Seeing Tom embarrassed and ostracized, Helen gives him an ultimatum: to accept her and defend her to his friends or end their relationship. Tom replies that he cannot handle it and that she should take the other job. They walk away from each other, brokenhearted.
LaBute provides few details about the characters' lives besides the fact that they all work and are approximately the same age group.[citation needed]
Fat Pig premiered off-Broadway in 2004. This was followed by over a dozen productions internationally, between 2006 and 2010, including in London's West End. In 2011 a planned Broadway production was cancelled due to the loss of a key investor.
Fat Pig premiered off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in an MCC Theater production, in previews on November 23, 2004, and officially on December 15. The production was directed by Jo Bonney, with cast Ashlie Atkinson (Helen), Andrew McCarthy (Carter), Jeremy Piven (Tom), and Keri Russell (Jeannie) in her stage debut. This production was hailed as a provocative comedy that made the audience think. David Amsden wrote in New York Magazine: