Brighton Fringe 2007
Low Down
Doug Devaney’s “Mein Gutt” is a pie in cheek celebration of girth that avoids cliche and delivers mirth faster than you can say “pizza delivery!”
Review
Doug Devaney’s “Mein Gutt” is a pie in cheek celebration of girth that avoids cliche and delivers mirth faster than you can say “pizza delivery!”
The play follows a fairly conventional dramatic structure. We are introduced to the here and now of a drunken man, home from the pub and then lead tangentially through a series of reminiscence and rants before returning to the story and its dramatic conclusion. Doug handles the chopping and changing of place, time and character adroitly with simple characterisations and with an agility and precision surprising to this clearly fatist critic.
Doug is such a charming storyteller and he has us laughing along with him for so much of the play that we could easily full for the “fat guys are funny cliche” that he rails against. Instead though, we are presented with a disturbing and all to human ending all the more shocking for it’s contrast to what comes before.
So much for the story (I’m not going to tell you what it is!) It’s Dougs clever and comic take on being large and society’s attitude to being large that provides the meat in this sandwich. This is a sharply observed monologue that manages to reference TV ads, films, politics, Shakespeare, Greek history, the science of food and the role of the gut in the evolution of homo sapiens. Along the way we are treated to a script saturated with skilfully crafted one liners, puns and allusions and a healthy portion of belly laughs. Doug’s gives a brave performance. He’s not afraid to laugh at himself or to show his own weakness and he makes a good case for fat pride.
I heartily recommend you go see this play. I might even see you there for a second helping.