by Neil LaBute
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Product Description
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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Average Customer Review:
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 This little piggy went to market., 2007-04-05
Some may dissagree, but I found this play very brave. It talks about the stuff that people think but don't discuss openly. I really fell in love with the lead female character and the neurotic x-girlfriend. I laughed outloud. I especially love the line. " Well, if I'm crazy you made me that way!"
It's funny and yet heartbreaking. I found the male characters really screwed up. But then, perhaps that's because I'm a female. After reading this play I went and saw it performed and loved it. This is a great play to perform, I'd imagine as LaBute provides you with so much.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 "A Boy-Man For All Seasons", 2006-11-05
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."
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Too True!, 2005-10-18
This play can really hit home if you have ever dated outside of your league. The pressure to date some one your friends approve of weighs heavy on the character Tom. Societal pressure to be perfect and be with the perfect person is explored and so worth your time and money to go on the journey. I completely recommend this play!
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Just saw the production in NYC a few months back, 2005-04-30
FAT PIG was astounding to watch. It was like standing on the side of a freeway watching an accident happen and being powerless to stop it. Ashley Atkinson is one of the bravest actresses in NYC for tackling the extremely difficult role of Helen. I didn't get to see Jeremy Piven, but Steven Pasqual was amazing. Kudos to Andrew McCarthy and Jessica Capshaw in very difficult roles. Keep in mind, this version of the play is NOT the final version. The script has been changed and, in many ways, for the better. Still -- this version is a great read and well worth the purchase for actors needing tricky scene work. Neil LaBute is always worth a read or a watch. I only wish he would turn this into a film like he has a few others.
3 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
A bit sentimental for LaBute...until the nihilistic close..., 2004-12-04
Is our black-hearted boy growing maudlin in his old age?
Of course, there has always been the pretense of the moralist in LaBute, but with the slightly "I'm OKAY, You're OKAY" intro. here followed by this exercise in topicality - it seems as if the American Pinter has hit a rut. The only redeeming value is FAT PIG's truly "no hope" (and also accurate) denouement, which has to be read to be believed. One can't even imagine it being staged as effectively as the reader's cold-blooded turn of the final page into...nothing. Wow. If only the rest of the text were this bloodlessly dark. Likeable for these reasons, but minor.
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