There’s not such a fine line between body shape and body shame, as Courtney McManus tells us in her one woman show, WHALE.

She shows no shame at the start of the performance, appearing in her underwear as she attempts to find a fitting piece of attire from the scattered apparel adorning the perimeters of the stage. Garments of Eden tempt her to try to make things fit with the snake of a tape measure coiled in wait.

Fitting is the operative word as clothing choice after clothing choice won’t zip up, button up, drape over torso, wrap around tummy or glide over thighs.

A more serious situation is her recounting of a trip to the doctor. The male medicos who can’t see past her weight when she comes for health help. The consult that invariably ends in insult.

Failed diets, passive aggressive comments, doomed exercise programs, a slew of insults, presumptions and prejudices make up the story telling technique of WHALE, which leans heavily on pre-recorded audio to bring other characters “to life”.

After bearing the slings and arrows of fatuous comment, Courtney tunes in to Tik Tok which ticks all the boxes to a new found life, embraces her queerness, and finds true love.

We are told that she is funny and that she is a writer of comedy but for some reason that is not really on show in WHALE. McManus tends to hide this talent. Rather, there is a passive aggressive anger in the presentation, softened, after a couple of impassioned manifestos, with a fairy tale ending.

Directed and produced by Ana Ferreira Manhoso for Crash Theatre Company, WHALE certainly confronts audiences and provokes conversation about body shape and the attendant body shaming.

WHALE plays as part of Sydney Fringe in the Boom Boom Room, Erskineville Town Hall.

https://sydneyfringe.com/events/whale/