A large bearded man is dancing centre stage. Suddenly the lights snap up and Scottee eyeballs the audience. “What’s so funny?” he demands sharply. It’s a good question. Why are fat people so often the object of derisive laughter? Many people – maybe perhaps those of us sitting here in the theatre who think of ourselves as liberal and tolerant – are repelled by other forms of prejudice but still huff when a fat person sits down next to them, resenting the way they take up space.
One of the glorious things about this angry, lovable and tender show, a wild cabaret created with four plus-size male participants and choreographer Lea Anderson, is the way it makes space for these fat blokes. They flaunt themselves rather than trying to squeeze themselves into the smallest space possible. They are made visible.
“This is fat rebellion,” yells Scottee, and it is, an act of theatrical consciousness-raising. The audience is challenged, and the men get not just to tell their stories – tales of childhood bullying, daily humiliations, brutal violence – but to consider their own identities through moving those bodies which are so often shamed.
There is a heartbreaking moment when Scottee tenderly covers each of the men’s faces, leaving only their bellies exposed, rendering them headless like those sneakily snapped street photographs used to illustrate the “obesity epidemic” in which people’s faces are obscured. But there is joy too. At the end, the men dance, the flesh wobbles, and they are all beautiful. All unashamedly themselves.
- At Home, Manchester, until 24 May. Box office: 0161-200 1500. Then touring to 11 November.
