by Jennifer Pelka, Feast NBC New York
Lovers of fine food tend to be lovers of all things brilliant in the cultural universe, so you’ll be glad to know that there is a play going up in Manhattan that does more than touch on the topic of eating–the actors encourage you drink your own wine and inhale the scents of live-action cooking from the stage.
You can bring your own bottle of wine to “La Vie Matérielle,” by Parisian director Irina Brook, in which five women gather around a family kitchen to cook, gossip, laugh, cry, and break into occasional song and dance. Based on the culty French writer Marguerite Duras’ memoirs and inspired by scenes from A Room of One’s Own, the cast of this show is cooking–literally, throughout the scenes. They’re hard at work on a hearty French vegetable soup, which is bubbling on the stove as you walk into the theater.
The dinner party environment is real – Brook is encouraging audience members to come to the performance with a bottle in hand to enjoy with the cast following the show, paired with a warm bowl of soup. Because Brook was determined to have real food cooking throughout the performance, the technical choreography of the show was not only built around how these women move around the stage and their springy dance moves, but it details the critical moments in making the recipe – say, for example, that they must chop an onion at the same time that they deliver a particular line.
Brook said, “my casting premise was to bring together women who were fabulous, extraordinary, strong, beautiful, intelligent women”… kind of like the dream scenario for any dinner party roster. The offbeat but extraordinary coterie includes Nicole Ansari of Deadwood, folk rocker Sadie Jemmet, former Editor of French Vogue, Joan Juliet Buck (most recently seen in Julie & Julia), filmmaker/writer/director Winsome Brown, and violinist Yibin Li. Who wouldn’t want to break bread and share a bottle with these ladies? View a video clip from the show below.
“La Vie Matérielle,” March 11 – 21 • Thursday – Saturday at 8PM • Sundays at 2:30PM
La MaMa Experimental Theater Club 74 East 4th Street New York, NY 10003 (212) 254-6468
Purchase tickets online here.
More info here.