Jar of Fat

by Seayoung Yim, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (Foreword), Jacqueline Goldfinger (Foreword)

An absurdist comedy and fifteenth winner of the Yale Drama Prize, exploring family, religion, identity, desire, and beauty in Korean American culture
 
In a fantastical fairy-tale world, two Korean American sisters are deemed too fat to fit in their family grave. Will the sisters’ close bond survive under the pressure of their community and fretful parents, who will spare no effort to make them tinier?
 
Jar of Fat , the fifteenth winner of the Yale Drama Prize, is a phantasmagorical, absurdist Korean American tale about the allure and danger entangled within the quest for beauty and thinness. Both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply troubling, Seayoung Yim’s play burns through the accumulated rage that anti-fat bias produces to reclaim what it steals from us every grace, space, possibility, and breath.

Genres: Plays, Asian Literature

128 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2023

Reviews

[glee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this play. The ties to what it means to be a Korean American, the toxic yet often comedic beauty standards of Korean culture, and the anthropomorphism’s of slices of bread! This play was a quick read, it was super fun and just as impactful. I do wanna reread the play someday to try and understand what the meaning behind the glowing surfaces are? Perhaps no meaning at all? Overall very solid read and I loved how the playwright chose to keep in original Korean sayings and phrases. Very impressive.

[t. · Rating 4 out of 5]

ultra charming, i would LOVE to see this in person.

[kristen tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for mccarter
i love weird east asian media
i wonder how productions of this have managed the appearance changes and all the other weird shit that goes on

[Evan Stein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite on the nose don’t ya think

[aster · Rating 3 out of 5]

in many ways this reminded me of “the substance”

[Ffion-Hâf · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most unhinged thing I’ve ever read