Word of Mouth blogFood This article is more than 16 years oldTheatre of food
This article is more than 16 years oldSusan Smillie on the growing relationship between theatre and food.I'm intrigued by talk of a free piece of theatre at the Barbican in London this weekend where we'll 'enjoy the spectacle of a group of babies tucking into a three course meal at a very special restaurant'.
Babies and gourmet food? Sounds like one for our poor malnourished new father, Rafael Behr.
The relationship between food and theatre is one that interests me, and not only because it combines two of my favourite things. It seems to be a growing genre, as more and more artists explore the visceral connections between food, taste, smell, memory and storytelling, and provoke powerful reactions from their audiences in the process.
Some of the most memorable performances I've seen in the last years have been made more so through the taste, touch and smell of food and drink. The brilliant Curious have had a huge impact on audiences at Edinburgh and elsewhere in recent years with On the Scent - a show in which an actor fried pork chops, and popcorn exploded furiously in a smoky kitchen, while she talked of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the audience we downed tequila shots and it all made for a heady, intimate, manic and, incredibly moving experience, which I recall far more vividly than more recent outings. London Bubble theatre created an interesting multi-sensory show in someone's kitchen recently too. And until I saw How To Live from the marvellously food-obsessed performance artist, Bobby Baker, I had no idea frozen peas could be so moving (listen to Bobby discuss her relationship to food here). Her next show is entitled Ballistic Buns and promises a tasty ending (are we getting fed Bobby? Please say it's so).
I've also heard about a performance piece where the artist Grace Surman manages to eat an apple through her tights. Presumably the tights are on her head at the time, but that kind of practical detail is enigmatically missing. That's a spectacle that's got to be worth the admission fee, surely?
Taste and smell are intrinsic to memory, story telling and culture, so it's inevitable that theatre companies and individual artists are exploring this relationship and it's something I think - and hope - we'll see more of.
Now where can I find me a show that'll do some tapas?
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