In FEED, Three different time periods in the same geographical location play out simultaneously: Lief, the village gardener and herbalist, circa 1400c-1700c, tends his plants and prepares to embark on a spice trading mission that will forever change his life and point of view; Krs, an American scientist specializing in bioremediation, circa 2010c-2020c, arrives for a research residency at an international lab while mourning the recent death of their wife; Bestby, a futuristic priestess and keeper of the old ways, circa 3000c-4000c, conducts the day’s rituals with her followers while grappling with her impending expulsion from the community as dictated by its leaders, the Bossmen. Exploring the fields where we grow crops and the tables where we break bread, FEED serves up a meal’s worth of food to its audience while inviting them to question the various intersecting systems around the food they eat and the way these systems hold stories that affect our shared future and our view of the past. Seeds are time capsules, recipes are histories, and food unlocks rituals for communing with the dead. FEED filled the Painted Bride Art Center’s bi-level gallery space with pungent smells, fleeting banquets, and capsules of sensory nostalgia, as the performers harvested, salvaged, pickled, and apportioned foodstuffs for the audience to taste. FEED is a study in historical resonance, a journey into the forces that bring us together, and a play you can eat.
Premiered in the 2016 Philadelphia FringeArts Festival at The Painted Bride Art Center’s gallery space. Presented free of charge for all audience members. The immersive set was built largely from salvaged materials and included bins of real growing plants. The audience experience included many opportunities to eat food, including a meal-based celebration called The Hygge, shared by all three depicted time periods.
Cast
Brett Ashley Robinson as Bestby circa 3000c – 4000c
Thomas Choinacky as Leif circa 1400c – 1700c
MK Tuomanen as Krs circa 2010c – 2020c
Creative Team
Director Rebecca Wright
Production Designer Maria Shaplin
Design Assistant Sara Outing
Design Consultant Caitlin Lainoff
Costume Designer Jillian Rose-Keys
Co-creator Jessica Hurley
Production Team
Stage Manager Nicole Labadie-Bartz
Production Manager Terry Mittelman
Marketing Genius Sam Tower
PHINDIE
“Formed in 2009, Applied Mechanics produces shows that are collaborative in their making, and innovative in presentation. With the fourth wall completely broken, audiences are invited to interact with the performers, mill about the set, and select the stories they desire to follow. These characteristics were present in previous works by Applied Mechanics, yet FEED furthers their impact with the central role of food; the sensorial experience of a crisp wafer, or the cool tartness of a pickled radish weaves the audience member into the very fabric of the performance. Here, narrative, fiction, performance, and reality collide through the breaking of bread.” READ MORE HERE
FRINGEARTS.COM
“It might not always be considered as such, but food is a profoundly historical, political topic. The way we eat deeply informs the way we interact with our community and planet, the way we pass down traditions and recorded history, and of course, our own quality of life. Presented with the challenge of making a piece of theater that revolves around food, there are few companies in Philadelphia as well equipped as Applied Mechanics to tackle the job. Since their premiere in 2009, they’ve done much to solidify their reputation as an innovative, masterful creator of immersive theater that is as much an intricately crafted story as a lesson in civic engagement.” READ MORE HERE