Fat Pig by Matt Boehler and Miriam Gordon-Stewart

WORLD PREMIERE CHAMBER OPERA BY MATT BOEHLER, COMMISSIONED BY VHO

based on the play by Neil LaBute

Libretto & direction by Miriam Gordon-Stewart

JANUARY 22 & 27, 2022, 8:00PM

V. EARL DICKINSON THEATER AT PVCC

501 College Dr., Charlottesville, VA 22902

With chamber orchestra, conducted by Kathleen Kelly

Starring Tracy Cox (Helen), Troy Cook (Tom), Sarah Wolfson (Jeannie) and Will Ferguson (Carter)

Adapted from the award-winning 2004 play by iconic American playwright Neil LaBute, this black comedy reveals the operatic reserves of human truth that lie beneath the surface of a workplace rom-com.

Tracy Cox (Helen), fat-activist and co-star of the popular YouTube series Angry Fat People, speaks about Fat Pig:

“Yikes – what a title. Why would I, as a self- identified fat person and activist, want to sing in an opera with such a startling title?

Because this project endeavors to tell one of the stories of the fat experience — a subject that has never before been approached in opera. This piece tells the story of a fat woman who falls in love with a man in a normative body, and the tragedy that follows when the misogyny and fatmisia of the man’s friends and colleagues prove too much for them to overcome. This is a common experience for fat people — having intimate partners who won’t take the relationship public because they are unwilling or unable to deal with the realities of the deeply ingrained fatphobia in our society.

I was frankly blown away that both the playwright Neil LaBute and Victory Hall Opera had seen the value in telling such a story.”