19:45, Tue 5th – Sat 9th February 2008 at ADC Theatre
Lent Week 3

An artist, a scientist and a sexpot are coming to dinner. Paige, hostess extraordinaire, is celebrating the publication of her husband's best-seller about the psychological apocalypse. The arrival of Mike, marooned in the foggy lane having crashed his van, provides an unexpected addition to the evening's entertainment. A silent waiter, sourced from an obscure website, completes the picture. Primordial Soup is first on the menu - let the dinner from hell begin. In this macabre yet humorous work Buffini makes it clear revenge is the main dish on the menu, spiced with pungent allegory. The dinner party is the perfect dramatic arena: the intimate battleground of men and women, public and private, pretension and reality, passion and restraint. This production's colourful and playful design explores these tensions.

The production side is very exciting - I envisage the set design as minimalist but stylised and prominent. This will be complimented by a bold and striking lighting design. I'm taking the play, a colourful and vibrant black comedy, in a surreal direction and the design should mirror this weirdness! Lots of use of unusual and bright colours and playing with some sharp angles (in both set and lighting) are all part of the design concept. The Technical Director would face some original challenges - from dealing with huge chandaleers (which must be functional as well as being able to fly out!) to overseeing the life (and death?) of real lobsters (and their aquirium home) - both examples of how this play is very different to your usual mainshow. This play changed from 'Festen' recently and we have the challenge of finding a talented and creative production team in a very short space of time...