Aurora’s ‘Fat Pig’ looks more like a silk purse

Aurora Theatre gives a sensitive production of Neil LaBute’s weight-conscious romance

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The Stranger’s Lindy West has gone viral with her angry affirmation “Hello, I Am Fat,” in which she slams American society for its shaming treatment of overweight people. West asserts that living up to somebody else’s body image ideal is a pointless, destructive exercise. Neil LaBute’s painful romance Fat Pig explores the debilitating consequences of those very issues at Aurora Theatre’s Georgia Gwinnett College Lab Series.

The chemistry and charm of Fat Pig’s first scene plays against LaBute’s trademark misanthropy. White collar drudge Tom (Jacob York) and librarian Helen (Jenna Tamisiea) meet cute at a crowded food court and hit it off right away. Tamisiea gives Helen an ingratiating sexiness as the couple’s idle chat gives way to frank flirtation.

The problem is that Helen might euphemistically be called “a person of size,” and Tom goes to great lengths to avoid “outing” their relationship among his friends and co-workers. Given the jerkiness of the play’s other characters, you can understand his reluctance. Tom’s colleague Carter (Jimi Kochina) is an aggressive boor who ruthlessly ranks women based on their weight (and represents another version of LaBute’s swaggering would-be alpha male, a la Aaron Eckhart’s role in In the Company of Men). Tom also negotiates an awkward on-again/off-again relationship with a mercurial accountant, Jeannie (Maurean Yasko). It’s probably not a coincidence that Kochina and Yasko are both rail-thin actors.