Eating Myself at the Littlewood Theatre

We’ve all heard the phrase “you are what you eat” thousands of times before, but what happens when we don’t give our bodies what they need? What happens when we let society decide how we nurture ourselves?

Directed by Sergio Maggiolo, Eating Myself is a powerful and innovative piece of solo theatre, exploring the construction of female identity through societal pressures relating to our weight and bodies. Through a combination of movement and poetic dialogue, the protagonist tells her story through her kitchen, cooking the dishes that sustained her through childhood, and anxiously discussing calories. Repeatedly, she asks the audience if they think she is fat. Her struggle for acceptance is deeply rooted in both her Peruvian heritage and in femininity: she feels she must look a certain way, and she is prepared to do what it takes, even it means she continues to hate herself. Even if she must remain in a perpetual diet.

Actor and performer Pepa Duarte sparkles on stage, and the honesty behind her performance is undeniable. She knows this story is an important one, and that it must be told. The strength of the performance is only enhanced by the stage and lighting design: kitchen utensils are strung from the ceiling and a hot plate sizzles throughout. This is truly a performance for the senses, and it is a shame that it can’t be experienced in person. Nevertheless, the audience can almost smell – indeed almost taste – the food in the air as she speaks.

In the end, Eating Myself is a powerful and calculated takedown of diet culture, encouraging the audience to look away from their phones, and enjoy their bodies – the bodies that carry them through each day, that support them. Bodies that are theirs, and theirs alone.

Abbie Grundy

Eating Myself is at the Littlewood Theatre from 24^th November until 29^th November 2020. For further information or to book visit Applecart Arts’s website here.