Theatre Dining Experiences
A series of theatre-dining experiences, between 2012 and 2015, produced by The Art of Dining and Hobo Theatre:
La Turista: Café Duende
Eat Your Heart Out
Trade Secrets
Hunger
Eat Your Heart Out
Trade Secrets
Hunger
Director: Jamie Harper
Producer: Hugo Thurston
Designer: Emma Robinson, Alice Hodge, Moi Tran, Marianna Roe
Cast: Harriet Green, Jamie Harper, Andrei Ionescu, Hugo Thurston, Rhian Marston-Jones, Richard Atwill, Elien Hanselaer, Brendan Jones, Violet Ryder and Simon Yadoo.
Producer: Hugo Thurston
Designer: Emma Robinson, Alice Hodge, Moi Tran, Marianna Roe
Cast: Harriet Green, Jamie Harper, Andrei Ionescu, Hugo Thurston, Rhian Marston-Jones, Richard Atwill, Elien Hanselaer, Brendan Jones, Violet Ryder and Simon Yadoo.
Press:
"Hobo chooses to perform in non-theatre spaces and here the company have struck gold – or the bread equivalent. ‘Hunger’ takes place in the pastry area of excellent London Fields-based artisan bakery E5. Jamie Harper’s staging is simple and clever and the restrictive space is used very well, with the action weaving between the audience’s benches. The lucid, modern adaptation of Hamsun’s often surreal text has moments of real poetry, evoking the tussle between a restless, creative mind and a body’s basic, confining needs."
- Time Out
"Hunger, from the appropriately named Hobo Theatre, is the most charming combination of theatre and food you’re likely to experience for a long time. The play is extremely fast-paced, thanks in part to the accomplished multi-roling of Harriet Green and Andrei Ionescu. In multi-roling of a different kind, the protagonist is played by producer Hugo Thurston and director Jamie Harper, who also adapted the script. This turns out to be a wonderful idea. The two performers shift almost imperceptibly between protagonist and narrator, adding complexity to the central character, and acting as an incredibly clear visual metaphor for his moments of internal conflict and agitation."
- A Younger Theatre
"Towards the end of the show the hunger becomes not just a feeling demonstrated on stage, but also a feeling in the stomachs of the audience. Just in time, the play comes to a rather lovely conclusion, and out comes a delicious Scandinavian meal of soup, beetroot, cheese and wonderful bread. I’d like to say that as I happily and contentedly walked out of the little bakery that hunger was the last thing on my mind – but full as I was, the subject matter of the play stayed on my mind for quite a long time."
- Everything Theatre
"The adaptation is really rather ingenious, condensing the book into 75 minutes or so. Hugo Thurston and Jamie Harper embody both narrator and character, thought and action in constant interplay in a compelling mixture of a fascinating man and his trials. Andrei Ionescu’s gently strummed guitar, playing music arranged by himself, adds another texture to the production which revels in Emma Robinson’s rustic, simple design. The mix of tables swiftly converts into the dining area at the show’s end where copious amounts of freshly baked bread, cheese, steaming bowls of soup and slabs of gorgeous cake are served to satisfy our own hunger, embracing the communal feel of both dinner and drama in a most satisfying manner."
- There Ought to be Clowns
"Hobo Theatre’s aim is to produce theatre in unconventional locations and the crowded intimacy of one of Exmouth Market’s most highly rated eateries certainly fits that bill. The easy conviviality of the space, combined with the realities of informal dining, creates a decidedly non-theatrical environment, an astute choice which fits the suggestively dark moods of La Turista perfectly."
- The Public Reviews
"The picture of devastation builds graphically - fountains of cobblestones shooting into the air, bonfires devouring humans, a child with shrapnel in its throat and spirit of the piece is valiant; the artist figure who quotes Lorca’s credo that “a dead man in Spain is more alive than a dead man anywhere else in the world” captures the idea of a place worth a passionate and mortal fight."
- Financial Times
"Neruda’s anguished lament that “there is in my heart so much mourning and so much death that is like a forest drenched by the blood that killed their smiles” dealt an intense punch, whilst Lorca’s observation that “a dead man in Spain is more alive as a dead man than any place else in the world” pointed to the power of the dead to speak beyond language, reminding us of the war’s criminal legacy. The performances, too, were straightforward and solid. The young cast avoided sentimentalities, navigating the troubling intimacy of the space with a relaxed charm."
- The Arbuturian
