There’s no other way to be fat than ashamed to be fat.

This was the only possible conclusion from Mathilda Gregory’s painful, cringe-worthy confessional. This was not “how to love yourself the way you are” or “how to be ok”.

It became clear early on that Gregory was so far from ok with her fat body it wasn’t a laughing matter either.

Gregory does “comfort food” like others do alcohol or drugs, and acknowledged that her spare tyres are made of crisps and chocolate biscuits.

Her food diary, and laboured narration of attempts at Slim-Fast! and some lemonade mega-cleanse diet which led to her judgment she “can’t” lose weight only left the obvious question, why not try fruit and veg?

Gregory used a couple of clever devices to challenge the audience’s innermost fears and prejudices about fat, directing everyone upon entry to the theatre to sit on the left if fat, the right if non-fat. We were also asked to guess how much she weighed or, how fat she “really” was.

Here was where she could have played more with the audience to confront the last taboo: we know to be fat is unacceptable, and we discriminate against fat people.

Three stars