Neil LaBute |
For a playwright and filmmaker known for pinpointing every possible human folly, Neil LaBute is candid about his reputation as a master mocksmith of bad behavior. “My job really is to cause trouble — to create conflict,” he explains when I reach him by phone. “I look for ways to mess up whatever scenario there is. If they’re off on a picnic, I’m bringing in the rain; I’m bringing in the hungry homeless. If it seems like a perfectly good marriage . . . , wait till Neil arrives.”
Next Friday, SpeakEasy Stage Company will open the Boston premiere of LaBute's 2004 play Fat Pig; it’ll be directed by Paul Melone, who also helmed the troupe’s previous LaBute effort, The Shape of Things. In the canon of LaBute’s work, which includes the film In the Company of Men and the plays bash and The Mercy Seat, Fat Pig is gentler than you might expect. It explores the burgeoning relationship between Tom and Helen, nice regular folks for the most part. But Helen is described in the script as “a plus size,” and Tom’s romance sparks derision from his office mates, who weigh in (yes) with their disapproval of his adipose amour.
New York critics noted the warmth between Tom and Helen, and LaBute himself reckons that Fat Pig falls outside his usual realm of disintegrating relationships. “It was fun for me and interesting to write about something that’s starting. Usually, it [the relationship in my work] has existed for a while and I’m about to make it wither. It was different watching the courtship and the beginnings of the relationship.”
Helen is cheerful and quick to joke about her size. Her candor appeals to Tom, and LaBute finds her commendable too. But she’s adamant that Tom be honest about his willingness to accept her as she is, and Tom’s conviction begins to waver. “There’s a certain bravery in his confessing his cowardice. Most people don’t realize that they’re serial killers or that they want to run for president. They find out smaller truths — like ‘I’m not as nice or kind or brave as I’d want to be.’ ” Eventually, Tom succumbs to peer pressure. “While I applaud him for being truthful, I say, ‘Damn, that’s too bad, because I think you guys could have been very happy together.’ ”
There’s also a personal element in Fat Pig: the play emerged in the aftermath of a dieting regimen LaBute underwent, an interlude the playwright describes in the preface to his play as hinging on a “simple mantra: Stop eating so damn much, you fat bastard.” In the course of several months, he lost 60 pounds — and his drive to write. “When I found myself doing a regimen of things to feel and look better, I had four hours less in a day to work.”
FAT PIG | Roberts Studio Theater, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston | March 16–April 7 | $37-$42; $14 student rush | 617.933.8600
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