Photo: Supplied.
BY JAN NARY
Crunch Time is a new, innovative experience available at RPAC in July. Here’s a rundown of all it entails.
To add to the bedlam, the ingredients are chosen at the table by majority vote, the chef is an eminent local personality who may have the culinary talents of a tricycle, and every part of the process is tightly timed.
The creator of Crunch Time is Counterpilot, a local artist-led company directed by Nathan Sibthorpe. Concerned about emerging political trends in 2016, he developed the concept of a dinner party to reflect the election process.
“The diners don’t necessarily choose what the meal is going to become, but they’re responsible for choosing every ingredient that the chef – or politician – is allowed to use. It’s a really fast-paced round of voting; it’s like a game show. The audience creates the resources and the problems that the chef – or politician – has to optimise.”
While custard and sardines aren’t likely to appear in the same course selection, Nathan says that the dessert course is usually the most chaotic and often gives rise to wild possibilities. Translation of the ingredient selection into dinner is subject to the chef’s ability. Calling a food delivery service is not an option.
“A big question in the work is who is more responsible: the chefs for what they make or the diners for what they give the chef to work with. It’s entirely possible that it could be a disaster, but we do provide support staff,” says Nathan.
“We’re not interested in skilled chefs, we’re interested in public leaders – politicians, artistic directors, CEOs, community leaders, people who in their day-to-day life are dealing with what the people want, taking what the people are giving them to work with and having to turn it into something for all of us.”
Has the democratic process ever moved a diner to indigestion – or violence?
“There was a show where a diner lunged across the table to knock someone else’s voting token away. What was so interesting was that afterwards, he immediately felt a sense of shame, and everyone at the table acknowledged it, not because of the violence of what he did, but because he took away someone else’s right to vote. What I love about this show is we don’t have to say anything, participants experience the kind of discomfort and challenges posed by the democratic process, and they always find their own conclusions.”
Creating an interactive blend of dinner and political awareness, something to be chewed over physically and mentally, is a truly creative work, socio-culinary synaesthesia at its finest.
RPAC is presenting six opportunities to share the feast, with early and late sittings from July 15 to 18. For tickets, go to rpac.com.au.
