Fat Blokes // REVIEW To say that Fat Blokes is the most honest work of theatre I've ever seen fails to do it justice.

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Once in a while, you come across a film, a painting, a play, a book — fuck, even just a line in a poem — that is so real and moving, you feel like you’ve been given a gift. And you have, because that’s what art is about, that’s what it strives for: that moment of human connection, that spark between creator and audience that lights up the world. Friday night’s performance of Fat Blokes at the Project Arts Centre, lit up Dublin so brightly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you noticed and wondered what was going on.

Perhaps you’re a little confused by the superlatives in the above paragraph for a show called Fat Blokes. That’s fair, I guess; given that much of the show is given over to confronting just that attitude, that expectation of a punchline, from the get-go. It is subtitled ‘A Sort Of Dance Show’ after all, and we’re less familiar with the work of director/co-creator Scottee over here in Ireland. Would it help to know that he was on the Independent Rainbow List as one of Britain’s most most influential LGBTQI+ people? That this show is queer, provocative and frankly revolutionary? Probably not. But then the closest work I’ve ever seen to Fat Blokes was Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, and that title gives you absolutely nothing.

Alright, here’s the press-release blurb:

Fat Blokes is a sort of dance show about flab, double chins and getting your kit off in public – made by artist and forward facing fatso, Scottee. Fat Blokes uncovers why fat men are never sexy but are always funny, always the ‘before’ but never the ‘after’ shot. Made in collaboration with Lea Anderson and four fat blokes who’ve never done this sort of thing before.

To say that Fat Blokes is the most honest work of theatre I’ve ever seen fails to do it justice. This is insightful, fierce and sensual, making public some of the most exquisitely private struggles of past and present that the cast experience, due to their relationships with their bodies and other fat bodies. Recruited through an open casting call from Scottee, his cast of Asad Ullah, Joe Spencer, Sam Buttery and Gez Mez are, to a man, phenomenal. And despite the ‘sort of’ caveat in the title, they dance — really, really well. The work of choreographer Lea Anderson and lighting designer Marty Langthorne serves the piece eloquently, supporting but never drawing attention away from the performers. What might be extra-surprising, given the all-male cast, is the all-girl soundtrack (except for the one song that’s sung live, and that will haunt me for a while). Specifically, the all riot grrrl soundtrack. From ‘Rebel Girl’ through to ‘Dancing with Myself’, the Fat Blokes dance to a score of pure Nineties gender-role rebellion.

The term ‘community theatre’ usually refers to amateur/amateurish productions. Fat Blokes is professional but I really felt like I was seeing the term re-defined. This was real community theatre — theatre for and by the fat community, which the audience is given permission to dance along, to cheer along, to laugh along with (but not at) these men and their stories — and it’s going to stick with me for a long time.

Fat Blokes ran 14 – 16 February at the Project Arts Centre.

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