May Contain Food May Contain You – Woolwich Works, London

Creators: Luca Silvestrini and Orlando Gough

Director: Luca Silvestrini

May Contain Food May Contain You is the stripped-back touring version of the 2015 show May Contain Food by Protein and it revels in its intimacy. Stewarded by all singing all dancing waiters, Simon and Sonya, we are invited to share in the delight of food and consider it from all angles.

The broad strokes approach of the show, devised by Sonya Cullingford and Simon Palmer, uses a wide scope to capture granular detail. It shows us, in small moments, that food is in everything. Using a melting pot of devices such as dance, live and recorded music and physical theatre May Contain Food May Contain You hurtles through questions of nostalgia-based-omnivorousness, cold-storage of fresh foods, the emotional connection to bad pastry made by your granny and the lasting effect of being made to finish what’s on your plate. Standard conventions of narrative momentum are thrown out of the window and we are asked to just be in this ever-unravelling chaos of food.

Cullingford and Palmer are extraordinary performers. They are completely in tune with each other, supportive and combative in equal measure. They effortlessly transition between being coworkers, siblings and lovers, always remaining in control of their careful divergences from the underlying step track of movement. Cullingford is a particularly good singer and her operatic folk singing interacts with Orlando Gough’s off-kilter score to blur lines between the rehearsed and the random. Palmer is a skilled comedic performer and both actors bring enough kinetic energy to boil a pot. They are best at their extremities, finding surprising emotion in a frenzied movement piece that offers their body parts up on plates and the sensuality of an apple caught between their mouths.

There is the third character of the chef, played by Protein’s Artistic Director Luca Silvestrini. An unfortunate addition as the role is largely perfunctory and takes away from the delicious intimacy building between Cullingford and Palmer.

It is not without effort to hold the attention of an audience for two hours with a show light on narrative substance and there are moments where the slipping of attention is audible amongst the audience. The choice to let the chatter and community build is not always carefully reigned in when the focus needs to return. May Contain Food May Contain You might benefit from losing an hour, or leaning much harder into the quickly abandoned conceit of a tasting menu.

Protein has been creating work since the 90s and it shows as years of expertise make this show a solid and slick watch. May Contain Food May Contain You knows exactly what it is and invites you to fill your belly, both on its rich themes and stunning performances and also quite literally on food shared between audience members.

Runs until 13th April 2024 and continues to tour