“Three Fat Virgins Unassembled is next level because it is written by a woman, directed by a women, starring women and places the action in a culture different from our own. In doing this we can feel the full breadth of female experience and celebrate what we have in common while understanding how culture makes us unique. “
Suzanne Mackay
4 / 5 stars
In Ovidia Yu’s play Three Fat Virgins Unassembled virginity has nothing to do with sex and fat has nothing to do with your body, rather, these are symbolic of the constraints put on women and cut across time and place. Written in 1995 it is disturbingly relevant today, set in Singapore amongst a group of local women, it is universal. The structure and plot are as simple as the themes are complex, a group of women meet for tea and their conversations deconstruct the entire gamut of ‘woman’, from virgin to whore.
The play unfolds as a series of vignettes connected by a character only named as Woman (Happy Feraren) who deftly narrates the action and shifts between archetypes. ‘I am a man’ she proclaims becoming a boss or a husband or a security guard before flipping back to a female confidante. Feraren commands the stage without overwhelming it and is both charismatic and invisible when she needs to be. The three women who meet for tea flow through a multitude of characters but all with a common link – they are virgins, fat virgin women, falling short, less than they should be except when they take that piece of cake, then they are much more than they should be. Sabrina Chan d’Angelo whose character listed as nondescript Virgin A, has dreams of a career, of making money, of being independent. Virgin B (Caroline George) is an everywoman, a mistress, a friend, a girlfriend, she’s everything to everyone but cannot have any cake, she is fat which is to say she is imperfect, she wants things which she is told she shouldn’t have. As Virgin C, Denise Chan is the wife, the mother, the solid steadfast woman caring for others before herself and she’s happy, for as long as her husband says she is. Each of the Virgins ease in and out of different roles seamlessly and despite the small space, the actors are able to set a cracking pace which propels the audience through the whole gamut of female experience.
The costumes are used to great effect in this production, Esther Zhong utilises colour, texture and style to both represent the variety of feminine experience and represent the cultural environment the play is set. Sarah Amin’s set is minimal but again, is utilised by the actors to create a multitude of environments and the colour and patterns used on stage are reminiscent of Singapore aesthetics. Tiffany Wong’s direction is effective and clear and allows the actors to explore all aspects of the characters they inhabit which keeps the audience immersed in the world of contemporary Singapore women. Right from the beginning of the play, I thought of all the theatre, film and TV time given to the discussion of women in modern society, and an early scene discussing the many facets of the humble cucumber had me thinking of Sex and the City. Three Fat Virgins Unassembled is next level because it is written by a woman, directed by a women, starring women and places the action in a culture different from our own. In doing this we can feel the full breadth of female experience and celebrate what we have in common while understanding how culture makes us unique. Even twenty six years after it was written, this play is more than worthy as a production in 2021. The themes are relevant, the performances wonderful and it provides an insight into the world of women from ‘somewhere else’ who are just like you.
Suzanne Mackay, Theatre Now
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