PRODUCER Gina Donnelly’s theatre company, SkelpieLimmer Productions, has a way with play titles. Two Fingers Up, their pretty rude and funny show about female empowerment (and satisfaction), was premiered at the Lyric theatre last year before hitting the Edinburgh Fringe. Now we have Scaredy Fat (see what they did there?) which opened last night at the Lyric's Naughton Studio.
It began with a surplus of bad puns which didn’t seem to augur well. Yet this bizarre tale of the eponymous usherette heroine - actually played by a male hero, Colm McCready (also the writer of the piece), who is oddly winning and exhibits undoubted star quality - takes off via a fascinating linking of the horror movie genre, weight issues plus a gay male narrative. It manages to be funny too, even though we're handling all kinds of nasty prejudices.
We had a sequence of horror and obviously kitsch movie clips - loved the Carrie sequence - which Scaredy Fat admires as our heroine is beautiful 'even when covered in blood'. The references on the big screen, which was in effect the set, plus minimal phones (used with much funny reference when they rang, with sinister questions as to whether the rings came from the audience) and nothing much else work well. Our usherette is living vicariously.
This collaborative work was, I felt, slightly a work in progress, needing better stitching together - yet it has great potential. Our narrator prances about, detailing a slightly dysfunctional family background with his much loved mum, of course, espousing a Weight Watchers variant, Witch Watchers, and endless emphasis on food. She gives him extra chips, he eats them, takes on sugar and fat, becomes the latter, but watches elder brother Damien (of course) through the crack in the door hanging out with his sexy GAA teammates.
It is explicit, with slogans using the 'W' and 'F' words freely available on and off screen. But it is oddly life-enhancing too. The way old-fashioned DVDs come into their own is hilarious, with some droll lines. The puns continue, with a reference to a favourite fish and chip shop with religious connections as Children of Cod.
The Count Calories character, a sinister version of Scaredy Fat, wasn't initially that convincing. However, through this framing, which pops up at the end with its green lipsticked lips sneering and snarling, we got a superb horror movie meme. For, symbolically, Scaredy has been holding him and herself back. It's the enemy within we have to watch, the way self-hatred develops and grows like a sinister malady as we absorb messages about different sorts of 'normality'.
Costume designer Niamh Kearney must get a mention. Scardy Fat's two outfits, the Judy Garland-ish Little Red Riding Hood creation with red heels, followed by the slightly sinister mauve bodycon with stitched-on man boobs, were memorable.
It's a weird and rather wonderful 60 minute show, directed by Seon Simpson, on until Sunday, worth catching.
:: Scaredy Fat runs at the Lyric theatre's Naughton Studio until Sunday May 21, tickets and show times at lyrictheatre.co.uk
