New Calgary play confronts fatphobia with humour and music

The F Word is ready to shine a light on a taboo subject.

In this case, the F stands for “fat”—something society often views as negative.

As self-described fat women of colour, Keshia Cheesman and Bianca Miranda are hoping to change that.

The best friend duo is set to debut The F Word next week after more than five years of hard work.

Self-acceptance and fat liberation are the main themes of the play, created by and starring Cheesman and Miranda.

A friendship is formed

The pair met at the University of Calgary while taking their bachelor of fine arts in drama at the School of Creative and Performing Arts.

They were in a lot of the same classes and quickly bonded over similar interests.

Cheesman and Miranda didn’t get a chance to perform together much during university as instructors don’t typically pair up close friends.

However, they always dreamed of creating a show together and would eventually get that chance.

In 2017, the two were in a collective creation process with Handsome Alice Theatre called inVISIBLE.

They were tasked with creating a 10-minute piece about their identities and life experiences.

Deconstructing the F word

“We were brainstorming about what we should do and then we thought about the word ‘fat’ and when that word started showing up in our lives,” Cheesman says.

“We made a timeline of our lives of when [we] started feeling like we were being associated with this word and how we felt about that.”

The pair was also inspired after reading the book Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman by Lindy West.

“How that book spoke to us during that time of our lives was really just focusing on why is the word ‘fat’ so bad, why are we made to fear it?” Miranda adds.

That’s how the initial idea for The F Word was sparked.

“We wanted our 10-minute piece to be about that, where we talk about just deconstructing the word ‘fat’ and why it has such a negative connotation,” Cheesman says.

Reclaiming the word

As Miranda explains, being fat is often seen as the worst thing a person can be.

“At the end [of the 10-minute piece], our goal was to sing this song that was kind of reclaiming the word and chanting ‘we’re fat, we’re awesome and beautiful,’” Miranda says.

Cheesman says the response to their piece was very positive.

“It got a lot of great feedback and a lot of people wanting to see more. So we kept getting invited to different festivals and things to do an iteration of it. And Bianca and I had so many different ideas we wanted to explore,” Cheesman says.

The F Word continued to evolve over the years, and eventually a representative from Theatre Calgary approached Cheesman and Miranda about turning it into a full-length production.

A first draft was commissioned in 2019.

Ready to hit the stage

The pandemic delayed things, but after five and a half years, The F Word is ready to hit the stage, presented by Alberta Theatre Projects and Downstage.

“It feels like the right time… we’ve done some growing in those five years and we feel really good about where the play sits right now,” Miranda says .

“We know the characters that we're playing… they've been living in our bodies for five years. And ultimately, these are our personal stories. So yeah, we're ready.”

Despite feeling a bit overwhelmed as opening night approaches, Miranda says the experience to get to this point has been amazing.

“I'm just excited to be sharing the stage with my best friend. And we've been having so much fun in rehearsal,” she says, adding the whole team behind the project has been great.

Exciting and overwhelming

Cheesman shares some of the same sentiments.

“I'm excited, I'm nervous, and overwhelmed in the best way possible,” she says, adding the two friends have been dreaming about this for so long.

“It's wild, there are moments in rehearsal where I have to bring myself back to reality because I feel like it doesn't seem real.”

While the play is technically fictional, Cheesman says it is still deeply personal.

“We do play characters, but it’s based on our lives and our experiences,” she says.

“The journey that we go through in the play… is actually a journey that we did go through together. Possibly dramatized at some points, but for the most part, truly, watching the show is diving into Bianca and I’s lives and our friendship.”

Pause and self-reflect

Miranda hopes audience members of all shapes, sizes, and colours will enjoy The F Word and that those who relate will feel seen, celebrated, and that they are not alone.

“The thing with this play is that it has so many multiple types of storytelling that I feel like truly anyone who walks in the theatre will get something new out of it,” Miranda says.

“I would hope that for the folks who can't relate to the stuff that they're seeing on stage, that it causes them… time to pause and self-reflect. Because I really do think anti-fatness lives and is ingrained in our bodies.

“And I'm not just saying other people. We began this journey with that in our bodies, these deeply ingrained [thoughts] like ‘there's something wrong with me, I need to change this.’”

Miranda says she and Cheesman have been trying to reclaim the word “fat” but acknowledges that it can still impact others. They hope to draw attention to the power of words and tone.

“You can tell when someone is trying to use that word to weaponize it against you,” she says.

Reaching a bigger audience

Cheesman hopes the play will be thought-provoking.

“I really hope that people will be able to reflect on their own biases about fatness and fat people after seeing the show,” Cheesman says.

“But I also hope that they experience joy and enjoy seeing our show, they laugh, have fun, and get to see what fat people are able to do.”

The dynamic duo has a goal of eventually taking The F Word on tour.

Cheesman says some theatre companies across Canada have expressed interest but that nothing is set in stone yet.

“Fingers crossed that they like the show because we'd love to get it out there.”

Accessible performances and seating

The F Word runs at Alberta Theatre Projects’ Martha Cohen Theatre in Arts Commons from Feb. 9 to 19.

There is a masked performance, an ASL-interpreted performance that includes a post-show conversation, and an audio-described performance.

New size-accessible seating is also available, with some seats offering additional size and weight capacity. When booking tickets online, these seats are marked with the letter S.

Tickets are available here.