Theatre, food duet at Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival

May Sélim, Tuesday 22 Oct 2024

The 12th edition of the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF), held from 17 October until 10 November, offers a variety of performances inspired by current events and culinary art.

DCAF

 

This is not the first time the D-CAF combines performances and culinary art.

This unique experience was first introduced in the festival's 10th edition, with a Cook show staged at the Rawabet Theatre.

The performance relied on the audience's interaction in preparing a recipe on stage, led by an actor (Sayed Ragab, Salwa Mohamad Ali), without a pre-written script. The show revolved around food, history, and stories about communities.

This year, the menu is more elaborate.

Dance and food
 

So far, the festival presented Taste Me  — a show performed by the Wi-waa troupe and directed by Mohanad Qader  — blending contemporary dance and culinary art at the Rawabet Theatre (18- 19 October). 

The director said: "Cooking is closely linked to human history, dating back to the discovery of fire. The tastes and flavours that make up our daily meals have always been the source of rituals, connections, forms of resistance, conflicts, famines, social classes, death, and several events and emotions. This makes food one of the most important essential elements of humanity's journey on Earth. Even Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise was caused by a single tasty fruit!" 

Wi-waa is an artistic collective founded in Paris in 2021 by Egyptian creators to provide a space for producing and distributing multidisciplinary works and fostering artistic exchange worldwide.

It's all about Shakespeare
 

Between 17 October and 5 November, the British troupe Forced Entertainment presents Table Top Shakespeare at the Kodak Passage.

The show is about a salt and pepper shaker for the king and queen, a vase for the prince, and a matchbox for the servant.

Created in 2015, the show features six performers presenting condensed versions of several of Shakespeare’s plays, told humorously and intimately, using a collection of everyday objects to represent key characters on a table serving as a stage.

Food with one-on-one conversations
 

Another performance staged between 17 October and 10 November across cafes and restaurants in downtown Cairo is No Such Thing. It offers the audience a chance to chat with one of the actors from the British troupe Quarantine, inviting them to dine or have coffee.

It is a one-on-one conversation, a fleeting encounter between strangers shaped by their interaction and interest.

The show was first performed in 2012 when its creators Renny O’Shea and Richard Gregory decided to do something in a café, benefitting from Manchester’s rich cultural life.

Once a month for 10 years, the creators invited strangers to join them for lunch and one-on-one conversations.

Each conversation lasted about half an hour, with a menu designed to lead the discussion: appetizers, main courses, and desserts always accompanied by a “dish of the day,” inspired by current news. 

Food and statistics
 

Of All The People In All The World, by the English troupe Stan’s Café, is both an installation and a performance.

The show is scheduled for 6, 7, and 10 November at 5pm and 8 and 9 November at 2pm at The Hangar, 5 Hussein Pasha Al-Meamari Street.

The artists use rice grains in the performance to bring abstract statistics to life. Each grain of rice represents one person.

Over several days, a team of artists carefully weigh quantities of rice to represent a variety of human statistics: city and village populations and the number of doctors, soldiers, people born each day, people who die, war victims, and so forth.

The show is adapted to the local context of the country, city, or building where it is performed, with the audience wandering through the space to understand their place on the world’s chessboard.

D-CAF
 

The D-CAF showcases 124 artists from 21 countries. 

This year, the festival features 23 varied performances, encompassing dance, theatre, audiovisual presentations, and interactive experiences.

 

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Hebdo (French). Additional edit: Ahram Online. Translation from French: Ati Metwaly.

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