Protein: May Contain Food May Contain You review

Palmer guides the audience of total strangers to feed grapes and cheese to one another, an intimate, sensory and giggly exercise. Food brings us together, after all, so why not test how far that could go? Cullingford breaks into song and dance about eggs and their free, organic nature with impeccable vocals, easing in and out of pre-recorded scores by Orlando Gough. Then she is on a mission to feed the elusive Palmer fruits and vegetables – except that the ingredients are hacked and slashed with frightening knife work, and there’s an even more alarming sing-song voice in which she summons Palmer as a mother would. Special mention must go, too, to Palmer’s bell-pepper funeral procession, done with comedic conviction à la Chaplin or Le Coq. These moments are punctuated by choreography with intense physicality – the duo impersonates farm animals with incredible dexterity – and songs with soothing harmonies.

Silvestrini’s direction drives the work across topics that never take us where we expect. Yet amidst all the absurdity, the performers generate joy with simple household ingredients. It is an unfiltered representation of our connection to food, in all its messy, communal, complex, sensory and whimsical glory.