Fat Pig

Fat Pig: If you are a successful young businessman and you find yourself falling in love with a pretty, witty, engaging girl who just happens to be 80 pounds overweight, do you break up with her when your friends start making fat jokes? That's the dilemma faced by Fat Pig's protagonist, Tom (Jim Ballard). He met his paramour, Helen (Margot Moreland), while she was scarfing down pizza by the handful at a cafeteria. The two quickly bonded — Tom digs Helen's sense of humor (except when it's self-effacing, which is often) and taste in film; Helen digs Tom's who-knows-what (because, honestly, he's kind of a douche). Trouble arises when the skinny chick that Tom's been casually dating (Jeannie, played by Aubrey Shavonn) realizes she's being replaced, and who she's being replaced with. It's nothing serious — she just gets barkingly vituperative — but Tom's ego is crushed. The situation is worsened by the frat-boy wit of Tom's motor-mouthed coworker Carter (Brandon Morris), who never misses an opportunity to insult, publicly humiliate, and otherwise abuse everybody in his immediate vicinity. — Brandon K. Thorp Through March 25 at GableStage at The Biltmore, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Call 305-445-1119, or visit www.gablestage.com.

The Sty of the Blind Pig: Phillip Hayes Dean's play, a classic in African-American theater, debuted onstage in 1972 and was made into a movie in 1974. The work explores race, gender, and spirituality, set against a backdrop of the early civil rights movement in Chicago. The work is performed by the Bebop Theatre Collective, an ensemble known for putting on bold, provocative productions. — Raina McLeod Through April 1. Joseph Caleb Auditorium, 5400 NW 22nd Ave., Miami. Call 305-636-2350.

Field Day at 801: This is a preview of works by seven Miami artists working in various genres: Robyn Luck, Becky Flowers, Rafael Roig, Diego Romero, Bill Spring, Jean Villamizar, and Charmille Walters. Luck's choreography reflects Miami's growth, emphasizing the connections between body, space, and cultural memory. Flowers performs a self-portrait that explores the intersections between her art and her life. Roig performs as a distilled and simplified alter-ego, Rafi Elroy. Romero presents a series of frame-by-frame animations. Spring's subversive performance art is a mixture of personal intimacies and observations about everyday life that often blurs the line between dreams and reality. Villamizar uses mixed media and digital photography to comment on media-driven notions of self-image from a female point of view. Walters performs as Queen Nanny, an eighteenth-century historical leader from Jamaica. The performances are part of Fieldwork, a multiweek workshop presented by the nonprofit arts group Artemis, designed to help artists gather information about their work before it hits the stage. — Frank Houston March 23 and 24 at 8:01 p.m at 801 Projects/Camposition Studio, 801 SW Third Ave., second floor, Miami. Call 305-302-0452.

Betrayal: Everything in popular culture can be referred back to Seinfeld, even a major work by a Nobel Prize-winning playwright. Harold Pinter's 1978 play was the inspiration for what is colloquially known as "The Backwards Episode" of Seinfeld, which aired on November 20, 1997. The sitcom episode begins with Jerry, Elaine, and George returning from a wedding in India, and unspools backwards to take in the events leading up to their trip. (The groom in the story is named Pinter.) The play begins with the aftermath of an affair that threatens the marriage of Emma and Robert, and moves backward in time, from the end of the affair to its beginning. The innovative technique gives weight to the small moments and offhand remarks that contribute to the dissolution of their bond in a way that a conventionally chronological narrative could not. Betrayal is considered one of Pinter's masterpieces. — Frank Houston Through April 15 at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 322 Banyan Blvd., West Palm Beach. Call 561-514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.