The Devil’s Larder

Based on the novel by Jim Crace

Adapted and Directed by Ben Harrison

4th – 23rd July 2005, The Old City Morgue, Cork
9th – 28th August 2005, Debenhams department store, Princes Street, Edinburgh

A co-production between Grid Iron and Cork 2005, commissioned as part of Corcadorca’s Relocation, the main theatrical event of Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture. Premiered in Cork before transferring to Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the Traverse Theatre programme.

AWARDS

Herald Archangel
Scotsman Fringe First
Total Theatre Award
The Carol Tambor Foundation Award
Critics Circle: Best Director and Best Actor (nominated)
Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland:Best Music, Best Ensemble, Best Actor, Best Director (nominated)

“Someone has taken off-and lost-the label on the can. We should all have a can like this. Let it rust. Let the rims turn rough and brown. Lift it up and shake it if you want. Shake its sweetness or its bitterness. Agitate the juicy heaviness within. The gravy heaviness. The brine, the soup, the oil, the sauce. The heaviness. The choice is wounding it with knives, or never touching it again.”

Jim Crace, The Devil’s Larder

Grid Iron were commissioned by Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture to create a brand new production as part of the city’s year long cultural celebration.

They were part of Relocation, one of the largest, most ambitious and most high-profile projects of the Cork 2005 programme. Relocation was the brainchild of Cork based theatre company Corcadorca and involved four of Europe’s most prolific site-specific companies, Teatr Buiro Podrozy (Poland), Jo Bithume (France), Corcadorca (Ireland) and Grid Iron (Scotland). The Devil’s Larder brought Relocation to a close before transferring to Edinburgh for the Festival Fringe.

The Devil’s Larder saw Grid Iron returning to one of their favourite subjects, the impact of food on human society. A promenade production, it wove a sinuous and treacherous path from narrative episode to story-telling, from installation to song, with live music performed by David Paul Jones and award-winning harpist, Catriona McKay. Grid Iron examined how food can act as a catalyst for unleashing our fears, desires and taboos.

Jim Crace’s teasingly dark novella was the basis for a journey into a culinary underworld; an uncanny, uncomfortable examination of the envy, love, revenge, hypocrisy, loss and lust which seethe beneath the false calm of the menu, the shopping list and the recipe.

The Devil’s Larder brought together a fantastic creative team that included many of Grid Iron’s regular collaborators plus a number of Cork based practitioners and a Production Assistant on placement from Beirut in Lebanon. In the spirit of the umbrella project, Grid Iron ‘relocated’ to Cork for the entire rehearsal period of The Devil’s Larder, feeling it was important to fully make the show in the city whose cultural celebration it was part of and to enable us to include local artists in its creation. The company had a fantastic time in Cork and fully exploited the cultural (and social) benefits of the city. We made a great many good friends and retain strong professional links.

The Devil’s Larder. Feed your desires and abandon your restraint in a dark journey into the culinary underbelly.

Production photography by Richard Campbell.

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What The Press Said

“The Devil’s Larder is a glorious piece of theatre performed with great panache by a fine ensemble cast full of mischievous fun with all of them taking an obvious delight in the challenges of working with a promenade production. Underscoring and enhancing the production is some exquisite music composed and performed by David Paul Jones accompanied by Catriona McKay’s gorgeous harp playing. Ben Harrison’s adaptation and direction is a joy to behold, with each aspect of this production complimenting the others with music, lighting, performance and acting all wonderfully worked out making this a darkly comic and brilliant piece of theatre.”

Scottish Theatre Web★★★★

“Harrison’s astonishing command of the whole language of 21st-century theatre – text, music, movement, image and the breathing presence of the audience – never wavers.”

The Scotsman

“A scrumptious feast for every sense.”

The Herald★★★★

“an ingenious site-specific theatrical evening that should not be missed for either its quirky humour or architectural inquisitiveness.”

The Scotsman★★★★

“Grid Iron are at their scintillating best in this site-specific performance set in the dark corners of Debenhams department store. A dark, luscious treat of a show.”

The List

“Bolstered… by the music of David Paul Jones and Catriona McKay (McKay’s harps provide one of the more attractive elements) the work is sardonic and often very funny, with little scenes offered like toxic platefuls of what looks appetising but almost certainly is not. A dinner party is revived by strip fondue; a widow flavours her soup by using her dead husband’s ashes; a fisherman snacks on a pastry filled with vitamins and poisons; a group of gourmands rush to dine at a restaurant where the bushmeat could be something more sinister. And no one watching will ever feel the same about Jerusalem artichokes again. All this is managed smoothly by the vivacious and clever cast, excelling in their team-work and gliding from one personality to the other.”

The Irish times

“the acting is exceptional, Chris (sic) Dolliver’s set and use of the old Weights and Measures building is at times magical and Crace’s stories have the capacity to knock you off balance. It all adds up to one really satisfying night of theatre. A strange, quirkily funny and fascinating end to the highly successful Relocations project.”

Cork Evening Echo

“This is as intimate as theatre gets, with the audience inches from the action, and often involved in it – an unnerving but gratifying experience… The Devil’s Larder is an engaging ride from the outset. At once darkly humorous, overtly sexual, and wonderfully kooky, the play’s strength lies in the versatility of its actors.”

Irish Examiner

“Walking out of Debenhams and onto Princes Street after this delectable experience was like waking from a wonderful dream… An incredible cast seems to number thousands, so swift and seamless are their transformations. In fact they are just five, and each and every slice they serve up gently reverberates as the arrow hits its target. Faultless, enchanting and unforgettable.”

Three Weeks

“The tone is by turns comical, bizarre and subversive as the stories explore, through our relationship with food, the entire scope of human emotion – nostalgia, temptation, guilt, lust, gratification and fear. A haunting soundtrack, music and song from composer/musician David Paul Jones, is well devised to shift the pace and mood between the scenes… Altogether, a mesmerising dramatic journey, brilliantly performed with wit, charisma, poetry and passion.”

EdinburghGuide.com

“Harrison’s staging is continually inventive, employing puppets, masks, monologue, narration and dramatic exchanges. At the end of the show mere applause doesn’t seem enough and nearly everyone comes over to congratulate the company. Such a splendid meal deserves a generous tip.”

Scotland On Sunday

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