Created, Performed and C0-Directed by Geoff Sobelle

Co-Directed by Lee Sunday Evans

The vice of gluttony extends beyond the groaning bellies of endless hunger, into this perverse world in which we treat our food as performance art; ludicrous prices for good-leaf steak, food chimaeras designed to look like household objects, and a full breakfast delivered on bloody garden furniture.

Geoff Sobelle’s trajectory through the Fringe, to these hallowed halls of the International Festival has come with their exceptional ability to conjure and confuse with a blending of theatrical magic, illusion, and visual art. FOOD is no different, but for all the amuse-bouches, breadsticks, appetisers, and desserts we may indulge in, we seem to be missing some of the meat of the matter.

An enormous dining table occupies much of The Studio, converting the traditional space into a traverse staging to allow the audience access to Sobelle’s mischievous antics as they pace around the table, offering those lucky diners who have been invited to sit at the table, enjoy some vino, and indulge.

Armed with a menu, an apron, and a smile, Sobelle proceeds to conjure treats from thin air and unlock our distant memories of meals which define our youths. Their misdirection and sleight of hand unquestionably honed to a perfect level of artistry which dazzles and beguiles as endless foodstuffs appear and vanish on the gargantuan table. Just enough is true to allow the falsehoods to slip past without a second glance, but while it whets the appetite, the pacing steadies, a touch too much, as the rug (or cloth) is pulled from beneath us, and the tone shifts.

We move from our romanticised notion of eating into the salt and earth of it all – the land in which we cultivate, grow, consume, and eventually spoil. It’s mesmeric to watch, and unquestionably ingenious with Tei Blow’s sound design and Isabella Byrd’s lighting aid in activating out senses further. Still, the intention is so quickly realised as the buffalo and wheat make way for industry, that the remainder of the show’s substance is already on the table. The technical ingenuity will leave the audience pondering the ins and outs of the trickery far more than the substance of the writing.

Zesty, garnished with enough to whet the appetite, FOOD may, in ways, be the ultimate dinner and show to serve as an enjoyable, though not entirely quenching reflection on our relationship with the food around us, and the endless gluttonous consumption of flesh, land and ourselves.