FAT PIG: The Playwright

Neil LaBute grew up in Spokane, Washington. He studied theatre at Brigham Young University, where he became a Mormon, but later left the Church of Latter Day Saints.

In addition to writing plays, LaBute is a movie director (Nurse Betty) and screenwriter-director (The Wicker Man.) He wrote and directed film versions of several of his plays (In the Company of Men, Bash: Latter Day Plays) including the first play of this trilogy, The Shape of Things (2003) with Gretchen Mol, Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz and Frederick Weller. Fat Pig is the second play in this triology. The third, Reasons To Be Pretty, ran on Broadway in 2009.

Asked to sum up his writing style in a sentence he replied, “Strong construction, a way with dialogue, endless curiosity and a willingness to go wherever the material takes me.”

Another interview concluded: “As an author, LaBute is in no doubt about his relation to the characters in Fat Pig: ‘I love them all.’"