Fat Club - director's note from me.

The Green Room Theatre, Dorking Halls - 23rd-26th November 2016. http://www.dorkinghalls.co.uk

A note from the director.

I was excited when Collette Wighton and Annabelle Farrell of Latchico Theatre Company first gave me the script of Fat Club. Firstly I fully endorse the manifesto of the theatre company to create opportunities for women and emerging creatives. Secondly the play itself seemed to embody that manifesto creating a fabulous ensemble piece for a cast of emerging female artists.

It is rare in a play that you hear the inner voices of women and some of the lengths they may go to striving for a life, recognition and survival. Fat Club takes on some of these weighty issues: obesity versus anorexia, single parenthood, sexuality and the race against getting older, but in a light-hearted way and in the same tone that many women deal with the issues that face them in their lives; whilst facing judgement.

In the first instance the women in this play come together to lose weight in a slimming club as so many of us do, contributing to a multi-million pound industry that targets our insecurities about body image. This play also recognises the fact that this issue preys on us from childhood to old age. The play makes reference to the media stereotypes we try to conform to and recognises the individuals we are.

We spent a lot of time laughing our way through rehearsals as we recognised traits of real life women we all know and acknowledged the funny side of the plights we find ourselves in.

Kate Moss famously said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. I hope that by the time you come out of the theatre you will know that there is more to life than counting the calories in a slice of lemon.

Clea Williams

http://cleawilliams.wix.com/cleawilliamstheatre

P.S. Just 15 minutes of laughter a day will burn 10 to 40 calories, depending on a person's weight and the intensity of the laughter. That's enough to shift between 1 and 4lb a year. (www.weightlossresources.co.uk)