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In an intimate and often traumatic one-woman performance, Pepa Duarte explores her hostile relationship with cravings, calorie-counting and identity, as a bean soup bubbles on the stove
Dressed in Lycra shorts and a vest top, Pepa Duarte speaks directly to the audience: “Am I fat?” This question is a refrain in this intimate and inventive one-woman show about body image, cultural identity and womanhood. “I always ask myself that question. I don’t know the answer.”
It becomes clear that Duarte, a Peruvian-born writer and actor, has seen her body as a battleground for much of her life, and this show is a journey through that traumatic personal history – though it is not without its upbeat moments. Directed by Sergio Maggiolo and recorded just before lockdown at the Golden Goose theatre in London, it all takes place inside the space of a cooking lesson.