Have you ever wondered what you would get if you combined glitter, chicken legs and a rice pudding piñata? It may sound odd and like some sort of weird recipe you would only throw together when extremely drunk, but that (along with a whole lot of laughter) is what Selina Thompson promises her show to deliver. Chewing the Fat is coming to Stage@Leeds on the 16th October 2014 as part of successful comedian Thompson’s countrywide tour this autumn, following on from a highly positive run as part of Northern Stage’s critically acclaimed programme at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Part theatre, part stand up performance,Thompson explores the word ‘FAT’; considered in today’s society to be a dirty word. Yet Selina has cleverly created a show full of laughter; what she describes as her own little ‘midnight feast’ between the confessions made at slimming clubsand those drunken stories shared over a greasy 3AM kebab.
The show is a powerful piece of theatre that explores how we see our bodies as women and how we criticise them. Stella wants to bring to the stage thetruth of her life as an overweight woman alongside the constant battle to be beautiful and the burden that our bodies are. Speaking of her show, Selina said ‘It felt like there was a gap, that there was a truth about being fat that body positivity wasn’t covering, and that beauty conventions shut out, so I tried to make something that questioned those issues honestly. Honest conversations about our bodies are so loaded, and difficult to have: it’s a real mess.’
Selina Thompson has been highly praised for her previous works in conjunction with venues such as the West Yorkshire Playhouse and York Theatre Royal, who have championed her as the next great female comedian to grace the stage. Chewing the Fat is a performance not to be missed and one that will certainly ‘whet your appetite’ for female comedians to take the country by storm.
Emily Willson
Chewing The Fat is on at Stage@Leeds on Thursday 16th October.For more information visit the Stage@Leeds website.