Dinner is Swerved

• Gareth K Vile
• 13 August 2013

This article is from 2013.

It’s a feast for the senses, pending good company and a taste for adventure

The definition of theatre is becoming more open, leading to works like Dinner is Swerved. Having more in common with a surrealist happening or a middle-class dinner party than Shakespeare or Pinter, this late night party serves food with short sketches between course: the performance happens in the conversation between the audience members.

Sitting next to a boring couple who spend the entire evening talking about themselves can make Dinner is Swerved a chore: fortunately, the interludes are amusing - a conversation expert guiding the guests, a series of fun exercises to focus the senses - and the food excites through its strangeness. It’s inoffensive and oddly palatable, despite the weirdness of its appearance.

Dinner is Swerved is part of a trend in theatre to find new ways to communicate: attention is directed back to the audience, and the experience is more important than the show. It is a risky strategy - conversation can feel like a lost art - but the company provide enough entertainment to make this more than a mere curio.

C Nova, 0845 260 1234, 15-18, 22-25 Aug, 11.30pm, £14.50–£16.50 (£10.50-£12.50)