Black Country Touring and Birmingham Repertory Theatre present
Eat!
Feasting, Fasting, Famine and Food for Thought
Devised by the cast, scripted by Rochi Rampal
Directed by Steve Johnstone and Frances Land
Wednesday 22 May to Saturday 1 June 2013
Press Night: Thursday 23 May, 7.30pm
Lighthouse Media Centre, The Chubb Buildings, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1HT
Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Black Country Touring bring their intimate, unique and tasty play to Wolverhampton in May. Eat!, inspired by personal stories of war and poverty, feasts and famines takes place in the unusual setting of four caravans situated in the courtyard adjacent to the Lighthouse Media Centre, The Chubb Buildings, Wolverhampton from 22 May to 1 June.
Eat! delves into stories and memories about food – it weaves together theatre, live music, installation, beatbox and spoken word in a production that takes audiences on a unique journey inspired by many stories that have been collected from people across the West Midlands. The tasty site specific production using four caravans is based on personal accounts of what, when and how we eat and why it matters. The stories span the globe and tell of how people have discovered new worlds through food – from famine to hunger strike, persecution to celebration, anorexia to obesity.
Steve Johnstone, Director of Eat! says of the production;
"The stories may have come from across the Midlands but in fact they could have originated anywhere in the world. We've talked and listened to people from a huge variety of backgrounds hearing about war, poverty, family celebrations and some quite unusual meals that would repulse even the hardest foodie. We've given a voice to some of these memories bringing to life some moving, charming and honest stories.
"We wanted the setting for Eat! to be more authentic and real than walking into a theatre. The caravans help to partition the stories into themes and locations and for audiences they're not just on the front row of the audience they are right there in the middle of the story."
Each performance of Eat! is restricted to 60 people, who when they arrive are divided into four groups of 15. Each group takes a seat in a caravan to watch the stories come to life, and then join together for more shared performances in the central courtyard before venturing into the next caravan. Each caravan has a very different feel to it – celebratory, a library lined with books, a gothic Victorian variety hall and one that is half garden potting shed, half food bank.
The creative team behind Eat! includes Birmingham writer Rochi Rampal, directors Steve Johnstone and Frances Land with design by Purvin and music by Sheema Mukherjee.
Steve Johnstone is the Co-Artistic Director of Black Country Touring and a freelance theatre director with over 25 years' experience in directing professional productions. His experience of directing large and small-scale site-specific work includes productions for Pentabus, Shared Experience, Welsh National Opera, mac, Cultura Mobila as well as Apna Ghar (Our Home) and The Corner Shop for Black Country Touring.
Frances Land, also Co-Artistic Director of Black Country Touring, has toured Europe and the UK extensively with various companies including Eastern Angles, Friends Roadshow, Pentabus, and New Perspectives. Work with Foursight Theatre includes performing in Six Dead Queens, Medea, The Snow Queen, Thatcher The Musical, Can Any Mother Help Me? and co-directing Apna Ghar (2006) and The Corner Shop.
The cast includes Beatbox and spoken word artist, Sharanjit Bansil and actors, Nia Davies, Graeme Rose, Vimal Korpal and Katrina Demetraki. They are accompanied by a community choir of singers from across Wolverhampton and the West Midlands.
Eat! was first presented in Birmingham in October 2012 as part of Birmingham Repertory Theatre's offsite season. The REP is currently being refurbished and will reopen on September 3rd 2013.
Listings Information:
Eat!
Feasting, Fasting, Famine and Food for Thought
Venue: Lighthouse Media Centre, The Chubb Buildings, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1HT
Wednesday 22 May to Saturday 1 June 2013
Performance Times: 7.30pm Mon to Sat with matinees at 5.00pm on Thu 23, Sat 25, Thu 30 May and Sat 1 Jun
Tickets: £9 with concessions at £7 (plus £1 booking fee)
Please note due to the nature and setting of the production capacity is limited on all performances. Tickets must be booked in advance.
Box Office: 0121 236 4455 Book Online: birmingham-rep.co.uk
%7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecrescent%2Dtheatre%2Eco%2Euk%2Ffuture%2Ehtm%7Cutmcmd%3Drss%3B%2B){kind=small}
%7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecrescent%2Dtheatre%2Eco%2Euk%2Ffuture%2Ehtm%7Cutmcmd%3Drss%3B%2B){kind=small}
%7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eartsderbyshire%2Eorg%2Euk%2Fnews%2F%7Cutmcmd%3Datom%3B%2B){kind=small}
%7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eartsderbyshire%2Eorg%2Euk%2Fnews%2F%7Cutmcmd%3Datom%3B%2B){kind=small}
%7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecreativeleicestershire%2Eorg%2Euk%2Findex%2Ehtm%7Cutmcmd%3Datom%3B%2B){kind=small}
We are always looking for new ways in which writers can connect with the wider world and a really smart new project we are working on with the 
Our three writers are Stewart Derry, Garrie Fletcher and Anna Lawrence-Pietroni, all of whom have an interest in film but none of whom would consider themselves particular experts. What they are very good at – if the pieces of writing so far screened are anything to go by – is identifying how potent film and cinema is, what a strange and wonderful thing it is and what a great source of inspiration film can be for a creative writer. We hardly needed proof that film is inspired by literature – most films these days seem to be adaptations of a book – but it is nice to see the prospect of a film calling forth some really sharp, clever, thoughtful pieces of writing. If you get a chance to see a film at the Regal Cinema in Tenbury Wells, look out for our Flash Film Fiction before your film. And in the meantime, here's Stewart Derry's piece screened in advance of the film 'Hitchcock':
%7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecrescent%2Dtheatre%2Eco%2Euk%2Ffuture%2Ehtm%7Cutmcmd%3Drss%3B%2B){kind=small}
