In a time where Body Mass Index is a de facto measurement of human worth, has our obsession with external perfection turned us ugly on the inside? It’s one of several piercing questions asked by American playwright Neil LaBute in his 2004 play Fat Pig, a romantic comedy with serious bite.

In it we encounter a burgeoning office romance between Tom and co-worker Helen. She’s smart, funny, warm, even loves war movies – what’s not to like?

Plenty, according to Tom’s on-again-off-again girlfriend Jeannie and best buddy Carter. Neither can’t get past the fact that Helen is a big-bodied woman, and together they determine that whatever Tom’s feelings for Helen might be, the relationship must be terminated with extreme prejudice.

Will Tom bend to peer pressure or take a chance on happiness with Helen? Can anyone truly look past appearances in a world obsessed with surface?

“Opera heightens everything …” Miriam Gordon-Stewart. Photo supplied

For the US-based Australian soprano and librettist Miriam Gordon-Stewart, Fat Pig was a story begging to be told on the operatic stage.

“We realised this was something we hadn’t seen before in opera,” she tells Limelight, speaking over the phone from...