SKINNY tackles all the mighty, meaty, malicious issues of the weight and wellness world with a one-woman performance by Michelle Pearson — a confident and collected entertainer who can SING. Really, really sing: for all the loaded ground SKINNY attempts to cover, it’s Pearson’s stellar voice that carries the production.
It’s difficult to summarise the themes and format of SKINNY: primarily, it’s an exploration of a societal obsession with weight, diets, and appearance. There’s serious black and white testimonials played on a projector, featuring those who’ve delved into the dangerous world of diet culture, and suffered the mental and physical consequences. There’s particularly moving storytelling from Pearson herself, detailing how “skinny” and all the word entails have followed her from childhood to adulthood. There is also a banger-filled tracklist with artists ranging from Carly Rae Jepsen to Radiohead, performed by Pearson in a sparkling sequinned dress. It’s a rollercoaster!
Pearson is wonderful, beyond her brilliant voice, building support from the crowd via some mild audience participation and heartfelt anecdotes. She’s lots of fun, as well, flinging shapewear and bras into the abyss of the McEwan Hall basement and making known her love for the people’s pig princess, Miss Piggy.
But this is where the contrast with the show’s dark subject matter comes into focus: Pearson also recounts her personal experiences with the grisly world of gastric band surgery, a member of her band portraying a shifty doctor recommending shifty surgeries for (presumably, monetary) gain. The money business of the weight-loss economy is a consistent theme, with Ozempic — the hottest topic of them all — getting a grilling regarding its pricing (£200 per week!).
The most touching part of the whole performance is probably the projector interviews: it’s quite shocking how easily you can tell which of the interviewees are still struggling with their memories (of particularly painful comments in adolescence, long-lasting phrasings from significant others, even cruelty as children from adults), and which are able to laugh. There’s many a rising intonation and a strained smile, as they try to convince themselves and the interviewee that it’s funny, or something they should be able to disregard: as Pearson illustrates, it’s really, really not.
Little Mix’s ‘Little Me’ is the stand-out song of the night, a ridiculously moving ballad timed perfectly at a ridiculously moving point of the show. It encapsulates incredibly, too, the overarching message of the performance: an ultimately uplifting one, to treat the past versions of yourself with love, whilst being grateful that the present you knows better. SKINNY has a message or several, but this is the one that sticks.
SKINNY is running until 10 August at Friesian at Underbelly, Bristo Square.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Rachel Scholich, provided to The Student as press