Scientists rush to support complex insight into obesity

Playwright Alana Valentine has been delighted by responses from scientists to her work Made to Measure, now playing at the Seymour Centre. Playwright Alana Valentine is urging scientists and clinicians to attend her new play, Made to Measure , at the Seymour Centre because it puts complex research in the public domain and it brings to life the human behaviour around obesity issues. "When I was writer-in-residence at the Charles Perkins Centre I was shocked at how frustrated scientists are by the lack of a complex approach to the science around obesity," Valentine said. "I heard the most harrowing stories of their research being misrepresented and tabloid shock tactics. So it's been a huge relief to me that the scientists who have seen Made to Measure have endorsed and enjoyed it so much." "The public domain is so fraught and so contested around body image, but what theatre can do is actually show all the contradictions and conflicts as they relate to vulnerable, complex human beings and the decisions they make about nutrition." Valentine wrote Made to Measure with support from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre , committed to easing the global burden of the 'lifestyle diseases' such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and related conditions using a collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach. Her interactions with researchers at the Centre informed the work, and ensured the latest scientific evidence could be incorporated into the storytelling. The play is the story of a young woman, Ashleigh, who is living in a large body and seeking to have a wedding dress made for her.