Edible Dramaturgy: Exploring death and fetish through candy

CandyCake
Written By Leigh Henderson
Woman in an apron laying out a row of balls on cake on a large table

This is a performance I did with my friend and collaborator Kristin Hunt at the Makers Exhibition at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. It’s based on two of our previous edible dramaturgy performances, Woyzeck (2013) and Miss Julie (2014). Guests were presented parallel, five-course tasting menus that led them through Woyzeck’s increasing madness and Miss Julie’s sexual surrender through the scent, taste, and texture of the food.

The menu consisted of single peas, pea gummies, pea soda, capsaicin spun sugar, red wine gummies, black pepper conversation hearts, and pea cake balls filled with garlic marshmallow.

Pile of peas on toothpicks next to a paper that reads, "Pea: We have seen that physical love has taken possession of all the sciences. In this respect it acts with its habitual tyranny."
Line of pea gummies next to a paper that reads: "Pea + sugar + agar: Man is omnivorous. All that is edible is subjected to his vast appetite, a thing which causes gustatory powers proportionate to the use he has to make of them ..."
Line of small cups fo pea soda next to a paper that reads, "Pea + soda + sugar" As soon as any esculent body is introduced into the mouth it is confiscated hopelessly, gas, juice, and all. The lips prevent its retrogression. ..."
Pile of red spun sugar next to a paper that reads, "Capsaicin + cotton candy: Capsaicin's effects begin immediately upon contact with the skin. The lips swell to a pout. A flush steals across the cheeks as its sting quickens the appetite ..."
Rows of wine gummies next to a paper that reads, "Wine + sugar: In the game of seduction, the fruit of the vine is a matchless competitor. Its appearance swells our anticipation even as its aroma evokes the musk of secret conquest ..."
Rows of pink heart-shaped candy next to paper that reads, "Black pepper + sugar + vegan gelatin: It is written in the Kama Sutra that if one, after anointing oneself with a mixture of the powder of the black pepper and honey ..."
Row of balls of pea cake filled with marshmallow next to a paper that reads, "Pea + cake + garlic + vegan marshmallow: Let us now glance at the system of our senses, considered together ..."
People at a long table interact with the artwork
Leigh Henderson
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