May Contain Food May Contain You reinvigorates one’s relationship to food, by turning this fundamental need into a fun experience.
Conceived and created by Luca Silvestrini and Orlando Gough, this piece is a deeply collaborative effort by numerous creatives, and performed by Sonya Cullingford and Simon Palmer. Similar to the combination of ingredients within a recipe, this act of collaboration also underpins the entire experience.
Audience members are invited to bring food along, and encouraged to share with one another. There is also a collection table for the food bank, connecting what happens within the room directly to a wider system beyond the performance.
During the show, the audience works together to make a treacle ginger cake based on a recipe from someone’s grandmother, that everyone has a slice of at the end. As it bakes in an oven on one side of the room, the smell of caramelising sugar wafts slowly across the space.
May Contain Food May Contain You achieves everything it sets out to do. Almost every sort of relationship to food is explored, including food as memory, eating as ritual, force-feeding, and the contentious debate over meat as murder, among others. Through a mix of dance, song and dialogue, Cullingford and Palmer engage with the audience with their charming, warm and welcoming personas from the moment audience members step into the space.
The space, designed by Yann Seabra, consists of several dining tables bordering a central performing area. Each table represents different associations and provocations concerning food; one table is decorated with homemade pasta, another with processed food packaging and wrappers, and so on. This cleverly encourages audience members sharing tables to start a conversation, cultivating a sense of communal dining before the show even begins.
Comparing dance to cooking, a choreographer is very much like a chef who leads the kitchen throughout a successful dinner service.
Silvestrini, the choreographer, is aptly dressed in a chef’s uniform. He pops in and out during the performance while leaving Cullingford and Palmer to do the bulk of the hosting.
Compared to the audience reclined in their seats, the duo move non-stop to deliver a thoroughly entertaining evening. The movement work is exquisite and the performers are clearly packed with protein, given how effortlessly they flip, toss and twirl one another around the space.
Silvestrini’s choreography is a terrific exploration of the many topics surrounding food, many of which may be deeply personal. The sequences are informed by gestures and actions often seen in the kitchen such as chopping, kneading and whisking.
There is a brilliant segment where the dancers take on figurative impressions of animals up for slaughter, and a beautiful moment where a tablecloth bursts to life as a large sheet of dough.
The tone is overall lighthearted and the dances are impeccably executed. At times, Palmer’s persona veers away from the main discussion to dredge out unsavoury memories, but the interactions remain cheeky, allowing the show to present both sides of any argument without bias.
Overall, the show’s message clearly centres around a renewed and considered appreciation of food, and our places within the massive ecosystem that allows a cherry tomato grown in a field across the world to arrive freshly grilled on a person’s plate.
There is so much to love about this show, whether or not one has a pleasant relationship to food or eating. This production gently guides the audience through the entire experience without anyone ever feeling left out. There is even a raffle midway through the show!
May Contain Food May Contain You is fun, whimsical, entertaining and amusing. It serves up a multitude of art forms exploring a melting pot of ideas that resonate with audience members. Ultimately, this is a delightful and whimsical experience that anyone is sure to enjoy.
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