In a thin-centric world, body fat can be as much a worrisome problem as a subject to explore on stage. The upcoming Faaaaat Festival (胖節) — six performances including theater, dance and a talk show — deals with issues faced by overweight people.
Li Ming-chen (李銘宸), the festival’s curator, says that people judge the overweight without even realizing it.
“People only see that the person is overweight and seldom wonder why or how a person gained weight,” Li told the Taipei Times in a phone interview.
Photo courtesy of Dark Eyes Performance Lab
The performing arts industry in particular discriminates against the large-sized, Li said.
“In auditions, if you are overweight, chances are you will end up getting the role of a mother,” he quipped.
For the creative talents who put Faaaaat Festival together, a few extra pounds of flesh doesn’t fully represent who a person is.
Photo courtesy of Dark Eyes Performance Lab
Li’s theater piece, Everyone has a Fatback Mountain Inside (每個人心中都有一座胖背山), employs the work of essayist Lo Yi-chin (駱以軍), who writes about obesity.
“When you label someone as fat, you forget they love and hate just like anyone else,” Li said.
Choreographer Yang Nai-hsuan’s (楊乃璇) Happy Birthday (胖胖交際場), the festival’s only dance performance, scrutinizes the stereotype about a dancer’s body size, which is typically lithe and well-proportioned.
Yang says dance school instructors often control a student’s weight so they can perform better in auditions. She later discovered more freedom in contemporary dance because “you don’t have to be slim to dance.”
PSYCOLOGICAL REFLECTION
Director Jimmy Zhang (張臍米) delves into reasons why people become overweight in his theater piece Da Zhong Lian Bian Pan Zi (literally: swollen face makes a fatty, 打腫臉變胖子).
Zhang says that there are psychological factors underlying weight gain.
“Our body reflects our state of mind. For example, kids complain about having abdominal pain right before going to school,” Zhang said.
Zhang says violent experiences, such as being bullied in school, can result in weight gain because “their body becomes a punching bag of emotions and stress.”
Zhang’s piece is set in the recording studio of a television variety show. The emcee on stage will pose ethical questions and let the audience choose right or wrong.
“There are people who think being overweight is wrong. Do they make that judgment on their own, or is it what mainstream society says?” Zhang asked.
Produced by theater group Dark Eyes Performance Lab (黑眼睛跨劇團), the three-week Faaaaat Festival will stage two performances per evening for the price of one ticket.
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