San Francisco Fringe Festival: the Weight Game September 19, 2010

Told through a series of vignettes, 'The Weight Game' examines society's obsessions with weight, self-esteem, and the conundrum that is peanut butter. The audience meets Jessica, a teenage girl coming to grips with the dieting scene; Sylvia, a 50-something woman who attends Weight Watchers as a way to escape her skinny, bombastic husband; and stay-at-home mom Margaret, struggling with her strengths and weaknesses as a woman and mother. Unflinching yet sympathetic, Ms. Abbey imbues her characters with arch humor. Woven throughout the scenes are the author's take on sorority sisters, reflections on the impact her third-grade students' fondness for cupcakes has on an otherwise routine morning, and overheard conversational gems.