Sunday, November 01, 2009
Kindle @ A E Harris 2
The Kindle Eat Your Heart Out show had its press night tonight, which I was kindly invited to. They've made a fantastic job of dressing the space, right from the hand painted Box Office sign, though the upturned car and dried leaves in the courtyard, giving us jam jars for the bar drinks and on through the show. There is live music and a meal, a feast in every way.
Nina Smith puts in a great performance as The Aide (essentially the narrator and guide through this promenade performance), charming and terrifying by she is Peggy Mitchell gone worse. Three gurning cooks show up, they are charged by their Queen with cooking us, the audience, a meal. This is a tall order, not because there are thirty of us, but because theirs is a post food dystopia. Every where we look there is ‘stuff’ piled high, but none of it edible. There have been all kinds of disasters, natural and man-made and as a consequence, the world has been stripped of every edible morsel, except of course the people.
Much of the show is scene setting. The Aide and The Cooks explain their world, history and challenge. We are given time to explore the scenery, which is spectacular in scale and rewarding in its fine detail. When everything has been explained and explored the time arrives to enter the spectacular white dinning room and to eat the exotic dishes the cooks have managed to summon up for us.
Opinion was divided about the meal. The set-up led people to be cautious about the food, but I’m not squeamish I thought it was all delicious. This period of eating was an enjoyable opportunity to talk with fellow guests about the show and its themes. With eating over the drama wraps itself up with the evening’s strongest piece of text.
Whilst Kindle’s cranked up performance style isn’t one I usually seek out, I did enjoy it in this context very much. Their use of live music, including singing and a small band was always strong and their use of the space spectacular. As always when promoting a show independently the challenge is always to draw an audience. I would urge people to go to say you’ve been. You will probably enjoy it and even if you’re not a fan at the very least it will give you some fantastic stories to talk about over dinner.
James
Nina Smith puts in a great performance as The Aide (essentially the narrator and guide through this promenade performance), charming and terrifying by she is Peggy Mitchell gone worse. Three gurning cooks show up, they are charged by their Queen with cooking us, the audience, a meal. This is a tall order, not because there are thirty of us, but because theirs is a post food dystopia. Every where we look there is ‘stuff’ piled high, but none of it edible. There have been all kinds of disasters, natural and man-made and as a consequence, the world has been stripped of every edible morsel, except of course the people.
Much of the show is scene setting. The Aide and The Cooks explain their world, history and challenge. We are given time to explore the scenery, which is spectacular in scale and rewarding in its fine detail. When everything has been explained and explored the time arrives to enter the spectacular white dinning room and to eat the exotic dishes the cooks have managed to summon up for us.
Opinion was divided about the meal. The set-up led people to be cautious about the food, but I’m not squeamish I thought it was all delicious. This period of eating was an enjoyable opportunity to talk with fellow guests about the show and its themes. With eating over the drama wraps itself up with the evening’s strongest piece of text.
Whilst Kindle’s cranked up performance style isn’t one I usually seek out, I did enjoy it in this context very much. Their use of live music, including singing and a small band was always strong and their use of the space spectacular. As always when promoting a show independently the challenge is always to draw an audience. I would urge people to go to say you’ve been. You will probably enjoy it and even if you’re not a fan at the very least it will give you some fantastic stories to talk about over dinner.
James
