Women's relationship to food in a society which worships at the holy grail of Size 10 is notoriously complex, but one that is also ripe with comedic possibilities. Deb Filler exploits them to the full. Most women and a lo of men will relate to this issue, which is such a feature of Western civilisation; why do we feel guilty about eating delicious food and why do we despise ourselves, or other people, if we have rounded or voluptuous figures? 
      Clearly an autobiographical tale, Deb Filler is a hilariously funny woman, part Ruby Wax mixed with Tracy Ullman and a sprinkling of Nigella Lawson. The play centres round the baking of a loaf of challah bread, made to her father's cherished recipe. It makes the theatre certainly feel more like a cookery demonstration in a café. 
      Deb's extraordinary family are all brought to life, for she has a real talent for slipping in and out of character. From the hard-boiled Aunt Vippy in Brooklyn to her loving mother who sends cheesecakes from the family home 12,000 miles away in Australia, all the women in her family are larger than life in both senses of the word. Deb's satirical wit is spot-on with a particularly amusing parody of a French woman and the sly one-upmanship in the slimming stakes of neighbour Eva. The sometimes claustrophobic closeness of the Jewish family is one of the main sources of Deb's humour; and with family recipes passed down from grandmother to daughter to granddaughter, food is clearly an issue in the Filler household. Deb's father is a Concentration camp survivor who survived by baking bread for his Russian liberators as well as his German captors. So nothing must be wasted in the new Promised Land of Australia; he bullies his wife for throwing away all the left-over cakes bought home from the family bakery and then berates her for being too fat. The dogs don't escape this tyranny either; all the family pets weigh in at 300 lbs and one is even run over by Ma Filler who mistakes it for the trash can; each one is called Lucky "just in case they make it to their fourth birthday". 
      Filler Up premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002 and is slated to tour Australia and New Zealand later this year, where it deserves critical acclaim. Deb Filler's warm personality shines through and it was a pleasure to be in her company for one and a half hours. Finally, the freshly baked challah bread was taken out of the oven and delicious smells wafted tantalisingly amongst the audience as we were invited to sample her produce. Could I resist? Yes - needless to say this reviewer was on a diet.
Louise Page