'Fatboy' at Red Orchid Makes Us a Glutton for Punishment

Fatboy, currently playing at Red Orchid Theatre is a vulgar and crass look at Americans and their greed, and their disdain for living. The show, with its comic-bookesque set and costuming, initially lends the audience to think they are going to see a story of a dysfunctional couple and the people who surround them in their life. After watching the dysfunctional couple dispute physically and verbally and drop the "F"-bomb thirty times in the first twenty minutes, the audience realizes that we are not theatrical observers but forced voyeurs to these sadomasochistic characters. These characters torture themselves and each other past the point of theatricality and to the point of writer, director and cast masturbation.

The script, written by John Clancy is offensive at best. The playwright depreciates the use of any obscenities by their constant repetition. These obscenities become second nature in the characters speech and lose all value as to their importance to each of the characters and to the impact of this strong language unto the audience as well. A play driven by darkness and negativity takes us for a ninety minute ride and when we reach the bottom of this Pandora's Box, there is nothing left, certainly not hope.

Steve Pickering commits fully to the title role, fat-suit and all, playing the character with a ludicrous yet effective style. By the time we reach his stripping down to normal man, we have lost instead of gained empathy for the character and feel affronted when he tells us life is worth very little. Jennifer Engstrom plays Fudgie, the wife of Fatboy who through a series of infidelities and plotting, travels with Fatboy from vignette to vignette. Though her characterization is strong, her choices and actions become incredibly predictable and stale.  The repetition of the script does nothing to help this. The rest of the ensemble plows through this verbose script with comic flare playing multiple characters.

Fatboy feels like an angst ridden college student, who just learned how to curse, got a hold of a pen, and an ambitious director who wanted to shock forgot how to care.

Fatboy runs until March 4 at the Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells Street. Thursday through Sunday at 8PM and Sunday at 6PM. Ticket prices vary and can be reserved through the box office at 312.943.8722

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