Letícia Rodrigues strips down to examine the body she wants to change and the body she fears losing.
116 Grams: A Play to Lose Weight is, as its title suggests, a play about losing weight, on stage.
Gorda, the autofictional version of performer Letícia Rodrigues, begins her story with her inspirations and role models: white, blonde and, perhaps most importantly, thin global cultural icons, including Britney Spears, Gisele Bündchen and ballet dancers. Dressed in a red dress and blonde wig, she begins to calculate the calories she needs to lose on stage each night. As she takes off her clothes and eventually becomes completely naked on stage, her own body becomes part of the subject she is trying to understand, as she wrestles with the idea of weight and losing weight.
She discusses BMI and how it defines some bodies as “normal” while making everyone else “abnormal”, the shame she experiences because of her weight, her complicated feelings towards body positivity and her dream of becoming a ballet dancer. There is also a section involving MC Bin Laden and the Illuminati.
Rodrigues uses the myth of Prometheus, whose body was eaten by a giant bird every day, to reflect her struggle with losing weight. There is something she dislikes about being fat, yet there is also fear in becoming thin. The same contradiction runs through the show: the body she wants to change is also the body she fears losing.
Although the detour into MC Bin Laden and Illuminati conspiracy theories makes the otherwise focused exploration of weight and the body feel less coherent, the show remains a striking and exposed examination of the complicated relationship between the body we inhabit and the body we are taught to want.
Show Listing:
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Venue: Zoo Southside
Dates: 7-30 August
Time: 20:20
Ticket prices: £14.5
Fringe box office: 0131 226 0000 / www.edfringe.com
Age suitability: 16+ (Guideline)
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/116-grams-a-play-to-lose-weight