When Winnipeg native Stevey Hunter graduated from Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts, they quickly became disillusioned by the options for roles available to them. So they did what any good creative does; they wrote one for themself.
“Going to theatre school as a plus size actor, I felt very put in a box about which roles I could play,” said Hunter in an interview with The Coast. “It was usually the side characters, the funny characters, and there was always this question of why do we always see ingenues of the same body type? The fact that I felt like I couldn’t access those characters became frustrating, and so I wanted to examine this very famous love story, but from a fat perspective.”
And thus, FAT JULIET was born: A modern re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet told entirely from Juliet’s point of view. The playful romp—set in Juliet’s very pink bedroom—takes an intimate look at how to love yourself first.
What has developed from this idea is an uncovering and examination of the fundamental fact that all of us are insecure in our own ways and for different reasons. FAT JULIET asks us to look at what self love actually is—and to question why we prioritize romantic love over learning how to love ourselves first.
“It seems like such a cliche, but really, this is about bringing that hatred of our bodies and the way that we critique ourselves to the surface so that we can really put that to the side and realize that that’s not what’s really important,” says Hunter. “What’s important is our friends and community and being able to find love from those sources as well.”
For Eastern Front Theatre’s artistic director Kat McCormack—who staged the first production of FAT JULIET back in 2021—the choice to produce Hunter’s brain child was a complete no-brainer.
“When Stevey pitched this to me, they said they had this script called FAT JULIET and I was like I’m in! Say no more,” said McCormack. “I never related to Juliet—still not now as an adult and certainly not as a 14-year-old—because she’s so confident. I never in my life could have accepted love with the ease that she did because I’ve been told my whole life that I’m too fat, too ugly, too loud, too boyish…just too much.”
The gamble paid off as FAT JULIET first celebrated a sold-out world premiere in 2021. Fast-forward four years and Eastern Front Theatre and Shakespeare by the Sea are welcoming back almost the entire original cast and crew for an updated version of the show built for touring. Following the run in Dartmouth, the show will head to the Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney.
When asked who should come see this show, Hunter and McCormack quickly replied in unison “everyone!”
“The last time we did the show, our first performance was a sold-out high school matinee and we were like ‘hello fellow children, we’re 10 years older than we’re pretending to be’ and so we weren’t sure how it would go over,” says McCormack. “And they loved it! They were yelling, they were screaming, they were reacting, they were crying at the end.”
People from every age and era can relate to the horribly wonderful feeling of the first time they fell in love—how awful and exciting that was. There’s a reason people love coming of age stories; having your heart broken is that one common life experience we all share.
“You would never think of Romeo & Juliet as a show for young people because it’s so dark,” says Hunter. “This is still that show, but when you put that emphasis on body image and how to love yourself and all of a sudden it’s a ‘lesson play’. But it’s really not! I’m much older than I was when I first wrote the script and I’m still struggling; it’s still an ongoing conversation that you have to have with yourself no matter how old you are.”
If you loved the show in 2021, expect to be wowed by an elevated version. All of the designers who spent the interim working on other projects are returning with more maturity and with a greater understanding of their craft. “They’re all award-winning now and the most sought-after designers in town,” says McCormack.
FAT JULIET opens on March 20 and will run until March 29 at Easter Front Theatre’s home venue of Alderney Landing Theatre in Downtown Dartmouth. Pay-what-you-can tickets start at $20 and are available online HERE.
This article appears in Mar 1-31, 2025.
