Here's a press release on a wild performance at UW which will
interest all who muse about food.
Don't miss the part about edible portrait-cakes and edible bodies.

Doesn't it sound like fun?

Sarah King

"The Last Supper," a "food performance and edible installation" will
be
presented in the Hemsley Theatre, Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue
on
the UW-Madison campus, Wednesday, November 19 through Saturday,
November 22. Offering visions of food, eating, and social rituals
that are
comical, poignant, and sometimes haunting, the production was created
by experimental theatre artist Richard Gough in collaboration with
UW-Madison students, and is the latest installment in Gough's
international
"Last Supper" series, previously presented in Amsterdam, Florence,
and
Aberystwyth, Wales. The performances / interactive installations
will
take place from 7 to 10pm Wed.-Sat. plus 3 to 6pm Sat., with timed
entry
on the half-hour and final entry at 9pm evenings and 5pm Sat.
afternoon. Tickets are $8 general public; $6 UW-Madison students at
the
University Theatre Vilas Hall Box office, (608) 262-1500.

Gough is the Fall 2003 Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Artist in
Residence, his residency sponsored by the Department of Art, the
Department
of Theatre & Drama, and the Dance Program. Gough is a Senior
Research
Fellow in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at
the
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, as well as Artistic Director of the
Centre for Performance Research (CPR), the "Aberystwyth-based
powerhouse
of international theatre" ("The Guardian," April 2002). He has
dedicated the last 28 years to developing and exploring
interdisciplinary,
experimental performance work. For more information on Gough, see
www.arts.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-4086.

During "The Last Supper," groups of up to 25 people will be admitted
very
half hour for a personal tour through a labyrinth of different
environments, witnessing performances ranging from portraits of
desire to
studies in hunger to restaurants where diners go for their last
meal.
Audience members will also be invited to partake of edible
artwork-portrait cakes, an all-white meal, and perhaps even an edible
body-while
viewing large-scale sculptures and installations made with, and
about,
food.

Guaranteed to be a sensory experience like no other, "The Last
Supper,"
delves into the cultural and personal significance of food, eating,
and
abstinence, offering a series of performative snapshots that will at
once
delight and disturb as it explores the idea of attending a "last
supper."

Artist's Statement:

"This is the fourth installment in an international series of "Last
Supper" performances I have been making over the last five years.
Previous
versions have been made in Amsterdam (1999), Aberystwyth (2000) and
Florence (2002). Each is unique to its place, the space and people
who
work with me to create it. Each is one-off, bespoke and
never-to-be-repeated. This Madison edition is of and from here,
containing images and
flavours that none of the others had, and in particular this version
playfully explores the idea of a 'Last Supper Club.'"

"As with all the best restaurants I use local ingredients, sourced
and
harvested from the immediate vicinity, but in this respect my staple
food
is the minds, bodies and imaginations of the people who have
collaborated
throughout the devising process. Devising describes the process of
individual and collective improvisation that proposes-through action,
through doing and making-fragments of performance and scenarios that
may be woven into the final composition. I take full responsibility
for
the
weave, structure and flow of this production, but the ideas, actions
and
images have risen from and been proposed by the participants of the
two
classes taught here in Madison. I am deeply indebted to the energy
and
enthusiasm of my students and all those who helped realise this
production."

-Richard Gough