THE OTHER F WORD - WILD RICE Singapore

THE OTHER F WORD

24 ? 28 MARCH 2021 THE NGEE ANN KONGSI THEATRE @ WILD RICE

`Fat' isn't a dirty word... but it might as well be.

All her life, Miriam Cheong has observed people tiptoeing around the word and the many assumptions and stereotypes attached to it. It's just how things have always been ? from her time as an unwilling member of her school's Trim and Fit (TAF) Club, to her trials and tribulations as a working actress in Singapore today.

Honestly... it's enough to make anybody swear!

Candid, vulnerable and eye-opening, The Other F Word examines Miriam's relationship with her body, the body positivity movement and the people around her as she navigates the ups and downs of weight loss.

What exactly is so taboo about being fat? How does society perceive and treat the fat body? And how can we better discuss weight and health in a world obsessed with thinness? Content Warning: Disordered Eating, Body Dysmorphia

IMDA Advisory: Some Coarse Language

MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Welcome to Miriam Cheong's The Other F Word, a frank, funny play that bravely explores what it means to be fat, to live as a fat person, in a society pathologically obsessed with thinness.

Judging people based on their weight has become the last socially acceptable form of discrimination. You do it, to yourself and to others. Your friends and family do it. Your doctors do it. We all do it. It has become second nature in us: entrenched, normalised and pervasive in the way we look at ourselves and others.

But these ways of thinking and talking about weight are neither healthy nor helpful ? they have very real, possibly fatal, consequences. And we don't talk about these issues anywhere near enough.

So thank you, Miriam, for telling your story. By sharing your words and your experiences, you enable us to engage in crucial conversations about what we can and must do better as individuals, and as a society.

Miriam's play began its journey towards the stage as part of Wild Rice's Singapore Theatre Festival ? a biennial event dedicated to celebrating new voices, new writing and new perspectives in Singapore's theatre industry. Even though last year's edition of the Festival had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, we are proud to continue telling stories that might otherwise be overlooked or forgotten; to amplify voices that too often go unheard.

Thank you so much for joining us in the theatre. Your presence today is a vote of confidence in Singapore's young artists ? a willingness to listen to and learn from what they have to tell us.

Let the conversations begin.

Enjoy the show!

IVAN HENG

MESSAGE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

During our most recent Christmas and New Year's celebrations, I was confronted with the renaissance of the "extended family making unsolicited comments on fat bodies" phenomenon.

Not about me though. This time, about my older brother.

It's a weird role reversal.

He was once the kid who made it, the fat kid who had a growth spurt and picked up basketball, while I was the child who, and I quote my grand-uncle on this one, "grew as wide as he grew tall". Now he's the one under scrutiny and I'm the success story. The girl who dropped so-and-so dress sizes and got fitter.

My aunt comments on my brother's circuit-breaker belly. My Peranakan grandma whispers "gemuk" as she playfully slaps his stomach.

He grunts, takes it in laconic stride, but ? the next day ? he says he's not coming back for dinner; he's gone off to play basketball.

I always say that I hope this show becomes obsolete one day. That, one day, these words uttered towards fat people can only be regarded as gross hyperbole. But then I see a friend bemoaning how she's now "lockdown size" and the pool of material for this show grows again.

Until the day we can learn to accept fat bodies, I'll remain grateful to all those who believed in me and in my story.

So, thank you, Alfian, for reading this script and believing in what it had to say.

Thank you, Alin, for agreeing to direct it and for reading and interpreting it in such generous ways. You have unearthed things that I didn't know were there.

Thank you, Jean, for helping me refine the script over our many chats, even with my many tangents!

Thank you to my stage manager, Elnie, and my four production assistants, for making sure this show runs smoothly. (Especially one so prop-heavy!)

Thank you, Ivan, and all those at Wild Rice, for giving this show the space, the opportunity, to bloom.

Thank you, dear audience, for coming to watch it. The theatre is never complete without you.

MIRIAM CHEONG

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Flabulous Female Fixations

When I was invited by Wild Rice to direct this one-woman play by the talented Miriam Cheong, I was feeling like DJ Khaled, exclaiming to myself, "Another One!" and then, I was thinking... another play about being "flabulously" female and embracing all the fixations that come with it? But the experience has been super lovely, while also very different from all the other one-woman plays that I have been blessed to work in.

As a well-endowed person of extraneous proportions, I can certainly relate, recognise and recollect the anxieties and issues that Miriam (the playwright and actor) wants to share. As a fellow comfort-eater, weightwatcher and dress-lover, it feels like a younger sister is telling me about her day. And, as the elder sister that had gone through it all, it would be easy to snub her insecurities and roll my eyes. But what fun can we get out of that!? So my job was to let her tell her stories and let my experience unpack for her the emotions and the enlightenment to be attained from each episode. At the same time, I have learnt so much from her.

Miriam is a bundle of joy! She is young, energetic, eager and really earnest about her craft. She is really very giving and is relentless about trying new things and stretching her capabilities. Almighty God loves theatre and the women in it and that is why I am always "gifted" with amazing theatre talents and collaborators.

Speaking of collaborators, I have an amazing team working with me... check out my fellow creatives and production people! Thank you, sayangs! And to everyone in Wild Rice, I sayang you all lah!

Forever Fantastic,

AIDLI MOSBIT

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