In parts comedic, conspiratorial, confessional, therapeutic and neurotic, Tom Moran is a Big Fat Filthy Disgusting Liar owes more to the guilt inherent in Moran’s Irish Catholicism than it does to the remorse a child feels on telling a lie and trying not to be found out. Having told a fib to avoid going to school, Tom finds his stomach complaint results in an unneeded appendectomy. And even then he doesn’t want to confess.
There is much to be made of a child’s lie for this is the stuff of life.
It is a comic reality. Moran, however, escalates this to the lies we tell in life and the false realities we create for ourselves.
As far as the show goes, these are Moran’s realities suggesting he is using theatre as a form of catharsis.
His delivery is rapid and, at times, exhausting. The path from comedy to neurosis is somewhat overwhelming.
Having started the show more as a standup routine appealing for an audience response to his questions, we find ourselves following Moran down the rabbit hole of obsession. Dramatically, there are points of transition where Moran uses a microphone or a change of lighting to alter direction or tone. What we need is an indication of the show’s ultimate premise to allow the audience time to assimilate all that Moran tries to cover.
He gives himself a form of absolution in the end having the maturity later in life to put his upbringing into perspective – adoptions, depression, therapy, unfulfilled affection, purpose and a future.
Finding the balance between the comic and the neurotic, however, might enable audience members to recognize and laugh at life’s ironies and draw parallels with their own lives.
Performed at the Trades Hall as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2024.

• Review by David McLean