Review: FAT JULIET at Theatrical Outfit Soars with Honesty and Joy

Written and performed by Bridget McCarthy, FAT JULIET ran through September 7th at Theatrical Outfit, marking the play's full length premier through Theatrical Outfit's Made In Atlanta LAUNCHPAD program supporting Atlanta stories and storytellers. McCarthy's one-person show is a singular, authentic voice that becomes a chorus of memory, resilience, self actualization, and the ribbons of miracles and absurd humor that connect us all. 

FAT JULIET isn’t the kind of story that asks politely for your attention, but it doesn't strong-arm you either. The power of McCarthy's words and performance draws you toward them with curiosity. How can one performer say so much, do so much, with such economy and flow between past, present, and future? McCarthy makes it effortless.

Speaking directly to the audience, with McCarthy, you're listening to an old friend paint living dioramas you wake up inside of, laughing, crying—sometimes at the same time. You can't help but feel like you are McCarthy or one of the characters themselves, spinning in a hoop, surrounded by ribbons, circling around one memoir, metaphor, and centripetally swirling toward the archetypical aunjanue herself: Shakespeare's Juliet. 

McCarthy’s physicality is grounded and fluid, wounded and defiant. From stomping barefoot confessions to ethereal aerial hoop sequences where their body spins in defiance of all it has endured. Each turn to the hoop peels back a layer of truth and joy and gratitude for the matriarchal ancestors who came before them—us.

Unapologetically queer, vulnerable, and inventive, McCarthy isn't interested in binary answers or tidy narratives. Instead, FAT JULIET asks you to sit in the mess of questions, people, and situations that remind us to honor the body, the past, and especially, the now. Visit bridgetmccarthy.info to learn more about where to see FAT JULIET next and more about this dynamic Atlanta artist.

Photo: Bridget McCarthy