A Theatrical Feast
Plushies are so 2006. The
current trending sexual fetish is feederism. Part of fat fetishism, feederism
generally involves a heterosexual couple who find sexual pleasure in weight
gain. Websites like fantasyfeeder.com, which hosts support communities and
dating profiles, abound; the concept was explored last year in the film City
Island; and now playwright James
Carter turns his attention to the topic in his play Feeder: A Love Story, which will be produced by terraNOVA Collective through
March 26.
Like most introductions to sexual
practices these days, Carter first heard about the concept of feederism via the
Internet, on an aggregate website. “It was, at the time, a source for anything
kind of deviant around the world,” Carter remembers. “So it would have
everything from stuff I don’t consider deviant, like masturbation, to very
bizarre stuff like cannibalism. And I found this article on feederism, and it
piqued my interest. I’ve always been very interested in body image and what
that means, and I just started doing more research.”
That research led to a first
draft of the play as a solo piece, written from the point of view of the male
half of a couple, Noel. But after the premiere, female members of the audience
challenged Carter. “I had women confront me after the show about my research
and why I was doing it,” he says. “Why I was trying to put it out there in this
fashion. And it was a little bit terrifying, but it was also extraordinarily
liberating because it made me realize the play was missing a lot, not the least
of all was the female voice.”
More drafts and workshops
led to the inclusion of Noel’s girlfriend Jesse, who leaves him at the request of
her former boss, a diet guru. In its present incarnation, the play unfolds in
flashback as Noel records video blogs of himself reeling from Jesse’s
defection, and Jesse chronicles her time spent losing the weight that left her
immobilized. Instead of shying away from the online aspects of their story,
Carter instead embraces the very modern concept of vlogging, telling Noel and
Jesse’s story via blog posts and on-camera interviews.
“The idea is to make the
audience feel like they’re experiencing it in their own homes,” Carter says. “Anytime
[Noel and Jesse are] talking, that’s a live feed. So probably half if not more
of the play will have some live-feed element happening. And then there are a
few sections that are going to be on video.”
Finding a leading lady to
play Jesse, whose enthusiastic embrace of her drastic weight gain can seem
startling in these fat-phobic times, was surprisingly easy; actress Jennifer
Conley Darling agreed to take on the risky role. “She’s one of my best friends,”
Carter says with a laugh, when asked how Darling became involved. “Jennifer is
the artistic director [of terraNOVA Collective] and I’m the assistant artistic
director, so it’s our baby. She was a little apprehensive, but I did a major
rewrite after the 2008 workshop, and when we did that, she was like, ‘Let’s do
this! We gotta do a major production. This is something we gotta put out there.’”
Blessed with a refreshing
lack of condescension or horrified fascination, Carter’s play seems to have
been written for all the right reasons—early reactions to his first efforts
notwithstanding. Whether or not the play, with its ambitious multimedia
concept, connects with audiences remains to be seen, but collectives like
terraNOVA are doing a service by presenting risky work like this, instead of
yet another work about ennui-riddled twentysomethings.
Feeder: A Love Story,
through March 26, HERE Arts Center, 145 6th Ave. (at Dominick St.),
212-352-3101; $20.
