SYNOPSIS
Fat PigFat Pig is the new love-comedy play from American writer and director, Neil La Bute. It tackles head-on the rather taboo subject of size and the attitude of popular society towards the larger person. The play delivers comedy fun and sharp witty dialogue in spades. It is a tender love story too guaranteed to touch hearts.
The new Trafalgar Studios One - formerly the Whitehall Theatre, which closed in 2003 - is home to Fat Pig during the summer of 2008. It is scheduled to run from 27 May 2008 to 30 August 2008. Show previews run from 16 May 2008.
Fat Pig - The Story Fat Pig starts with a meeting - a meeting between Tom, an average guy who works in an office, and Helen, a fun-loving, intelligent and sexy lady, who just happens to have a very large figure. For Tom and Helen it's not what you would call love at first sight - but there's a special connection between them…one that could certainly blossom into a relationship given time!
Tom's office mates - Carter and Jeannie - are less enamoured with Tom's new-found friend. It's not long before Helen's size invokes a few barbed comments from them - comments that later flow in torrents from Tom's shallow but shockingly funny friends.
Fat Pig CastTom's character is played to comedy perfection by Robert Webb, best known as the other half of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb. Ella Smith, who appeared in the 2007 TV sitcom "Sold" takes on the role of Helen.
Actor Kris Marshall is the derisory Carter, Tom's office buddy. Marshall's superb comedy timing and acting ability gives Carter a cutting edge few other British actors would be able to bring to the role. In April, only weeks before the play's launch, Kris Marshall, who is best known for his character 'Nick' in the TV sitcom "My Family", was hospitalised after having been hit by a car. His role in Fat Pig is not expected to have been adversely affected by those events.
Joanna Page is Marshall's 'partner in crime', taking the role of Jeannie. Page is best known to UK television audiences as 'Stacey' from Gavin and Stacey. Her stage credits include "What the Butler Saw" at the Criterion in 2005, and "Aladdin" at the Old Vic in 2004.
Neil LaButeFat Pig is written and directed by the highly regarded Neil LaBute. LaBute, born in Detroit and raised in Spokane Washington, has delivered some memorable moments to stage and screen in recent years. Among his film direction credits are "In the Company of Men" and the 2006 American adaptation of the classic British cult film "The Wicker Man". In the West End Neil LaBute has had a string of successes. These have included "The Shape of Things", which starred Alicia Witt in 2004, and "Some Girls" featuring David Schwimmer in 2005. Fat Pig is Neil LaBute's first West End representation since 2005.
