Theater review: Still Life with Fatty Nephew

Three elderly sisters live together in an apartment. They bicker, kvetch, gossip, sing old songs and repeat family stories ad infinitum. They also fuss over their nephew Pompiliu, whom the aunts have raised since the death of his mother, the fourth sister.

[NB. Potential spoiler warning for the second and fourth paragraphs]

Pompi (Pavel Bartos) is fat – very fat. He can barely get himself into a chair; much less can he get anyone else into bed. His doting aunts, Vanda (Dorina Lazar), Cesonia (Rodica Mandache) and Mirela (Oana Stefanescu), think that Pompi would be happier if he was getting some action. So they procure company for him, in the form of local prostitute Lili (Nicoleta Lefter).

What follows is something close to tragicomedy, as the various characters – all essentially well meaning but all flawed – negotiate their individual foibles and dysfunctional relationships with each other.

Eugen Fat’s play derives some slapstick laughs from poor Pompi’s size, as Bartos reels around the stage in a fat suit. There is much situational humor in three respectable ladies dealing with a worldly wise young escort. But there is also wry observational comedy about the human condition – our tendencies to trot out the same old tales over and over, remember slanted versions of history that flatter us and deceive ourselves about others.

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Underpinning all the humor is the sad reality that sometimes it’s impossible to make someone happy, no matter how much you want to and how much you care about them. Still Life with Fatty Nephew is a touching play, exploring love, loyalty, desire, relationships, family, loss, selfishness and sorrow. In short – what it is to be human.

Debbie Stowe

English subtitles are available on request. Theatergoers who would like this service should put in their request two days in advance of the performance in question, either in person at the theater box office, by email to odeon.art@teatrul-odeon.ro or by calling 021 313 6874.

Director: Eugen Fat

Starring: Pavel Bartos, Dorina Lazar, Rodica Mandache, Oana Stefanescu, Nicoleta Lefter

On at: Odeon Theater, next performance Sunday 14 December