Fat Pig: A Play
by Neil LaBute
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Book Summary Information
Author: Neil LaButeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-29
ISBN: 057121150X
Number of pages: 112
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Book Reviews of Fat Pig: A Play
Book Review: "A Boy-Man For All Seasons"
Summary: 5 Stars
Evelyn Waugh said years ago he revered the Church because its high standards "kept him human." Neil LaBute shows us a world several rungs below Waugh's. His characters lack not just a Church, but even a secular Code of Manners. Therefore, they lack awareness of any obligatory rules of mutual respect which might be capable of teaching them, the males in particular, possible ways to a fully human adulthood. LaBute's subject, once again, is the American boy-man, a benighted, largely unformed character, of whom in this play he gives us two examples. The first, Carter, thinks he's being witty when in fact he's merely buffoonish and impertinent. The second, Tom, openly admits to an easy complicity with injustice owing to a personal lack of fortitude and general weakness of character. The Knights of the Round Table or St.Thomas More, both alluded to in the play, of course have long lost any appeal to such guys as models. Carter and Tom are pretty much on their own; without profound guidelines their presumed freedom has them bowing to the whims of the moment or to pressure from the current in-crowd. Unfit for loyalty, much less marriage, they are, in following uncritically their untutored impulses, by and large just another species of serial fornicator skilled at playing and then betrayal in what they term, in contemporary parlance, "relationships." They are each, in other words, our generation's average sensual man. Tom, in his ignorance and weakness, is the far less satanic of the two. In fact, he is not so much a grand theatrical sinner in the mode of Iago or Tartuffe, as he is, embarrassingly, just a mediocrity. LaBute, nevertheless, has a bit of a soft spot in his heart for this character, recognizing in him, when he weeps, perhaps a flash of that triple betrayer Simon Peter at his lowest point.
The principal woman of the play, the clever, obese heroine Helen is clearly living in the wrong century. She'd have been much happier in the time of the fat woman as ideal, the time of Rubens or Rembrandt, where, far from being ridiculed, she might have posed as a model. Though the most insightful character in the play, she asks repeatedly for honesty from her suitor, the good-looking, non-heroic Tom, and she finally gets it - unfortunately. While he cares for her as much as he might for anyone besides himself, in his own words he is at best "a weak and fearful person," so despite his tears, he tells her what she least hopes to hear. Surely Jane Austen must have had some early 19th century boy-man in mind when she quipped that in social life "honesty can be an easily overrated virtue."
Summary of Fat Pig: A Play
Cow. Slob. Pig. How many insults can you hear before you have to stand up and defend the woman you love? Tom faces just that question when he falls for Helen, a bright, funny, sexy young woman who happens to be plus sized-and then some. Forced to explain his new relationship to his shallow (although shockingly funny) friends, finally he comes to terms with his own preconceptions of the importance of conventional good looks. Neil LaBute's sharply drawn play not only critiques our slavish adherence to Hollywood ideals of beauty but boldy questions our own ability to change what we dislike about ourselves.
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