Edinburgh, United Kingdom
FOOD (2023)
A dinner party performance that uses the senses to feed a meditation on the ways and whys of eating.
Why do we eat what we eat? Where does it come from? Do we need what we eat? Do we eat what we need? FOOD is an intimate dinner party of smell, taste and touch. The audience gathers around a dining table with sounds, scents and textures shaping a conversation about personal memories, consumption and the evolution of food production over generations. FOOD, making its European premiere at the Festival, is the latest creation by renowned clown and devotee of the sublime ridiculous Geoff Sobelle. Returning to similar themes as his 2018 International Festival performance HOME, FOOD provokes questions about everyday experiences that many of us take for granted. The performance is served with Sobelle’s signature flavour of rigorous design, stage illusion and an absurdist sense of humour.
Audience Role
FOOD is an intimate dinner party of smell, taste and touch. The audience gathers around a dining table with sounds, scents and textures shaping a conversation about personal memories, consumption and the evolution of food production over generations.
Ages: All ages
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3
Events
3
Years on EI
About Geoff Sobelle
Geoff Sobelle is an actor, director and creator of original performance works. A dedicated absurdist, he uses illusion, installation and home-spun mechanics to create surreal, poetic pieces that look for humanity where you least expect it. His work is deeply collaborative and reflects long-time partnerships with other multi-disciplinary artists. His most recent works include: FOOD (upcoming BAM Next Wave ‘23), HOME (BAM Next Wave ’17, Bessie Award) and The Object Lesson (BAM Next Wave ’14, Bessie Award). These three works are all rooted in a deep study of centering audience in the fabric of the show. Other recent work includes a composition for Times Square, TimesxTimesxTimes created with Pamela Z and Hear Their There Here (a site-specific sound installation for St. Ann’s Warehouse); Holoscenes (an aquatic performance/installation created with Lars Jan) and Pandaemonium (a multi-media dance work created with Nichole Canuso and Lars Jan). His partnership with Trey Lyford as Rainpan 43 includes: all wear bowlers, Amnesia Curiosa, machines machines machines machines machines machines, and The Elephant Room (created with Steve Cuiffo). Before coming to New York, Geoff was a member of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theater Company for twelve years. Other Philadelphia collaborations include: Headlong Dance Theatre, Subcircle, Nichole Canuso and Thaddeus Phillips. Geoff is a Pew Fellow and a Creative Capital grantee. He is a graduate of Stanford University and trained in physical theater at the Lecoq school in Paris. All of his work to date has premiered at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival before touring nationally and internationally. In New York, his work has been seen at BAM Next Wave, St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York Live Arts , HERE Arts Center, BRIC, Clubbed Thumb and Bard College; nationally in Philadelphia (Fringe Arts), Boston (Arts Emerson), Washington DC (Studio Theater), Minneapolis (Walker Arts Center), Columbus (Wexner Center), San Francisco (Curran, Theater Artaud), Berkeley (Berkeley Rep), Los Angeles (Kirk Douglas Theatre), La Jolla (La Jolla Playhouse); internationally in the UK (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London Mime Festival/Barbican); France (Paris Festival d’Ete); Germany (Ruhrfestspiele); Poland (Konfrontacja Teatralne Festival); Australia (Sydney Festival, Perth Festival, Commonwealth Games); South Korea (BIPAF), New Zealand (NZ Festival), Taiwan (Taipei Arts Festival). As a teacher, Geoff has led workshops both nationally and internationally in devised theatre creation, physical approach to character, clown and “jeu.” He has been a teacher at the Pig Iron school in Philadelphia (APT) and was on faculty at Bard College from 2013-2021. His projects have been supported by the MAP Fund, the Independence Foundation, the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, the Wyncote Foundation, US Arts International, the Princeton Atelier and the New England Foundation for the Arts.