GIPCA’s final event for the year is The Beautiful Feast, an eight-course processional dinner through the reception rooms of Cape Town's City Hall.
Acclaimed Theatre Director and 'foodie', Peter Hayes, will be both Artistic Director and Chef for The Beautiful Feast, which takes place on 10 December 2011, beginning at 7pm sharp. Taking his cue from the culinary arts as well as an enveloping political and social climate, the performances will explore some revealing relationships between power and feasting.
Ideas around scarcity and plenty, power and food, appetite and wish-fulfillment will be explored through the twinning of extraordinary food and magnificent performances, making The Beautiful Feast both fun and serious. “Violence, you see, is a form of lust, a primitive kind of consumerism: early capitalism you might say” (from The Godfather of Katmandu, by John Burdett). From cocktails, canapés and ‘amuse bouch’; to dinner accompanied by wine from Spier; to decadent dessert, cheese and coffee; it promises to be everything one would expect from a feast. But with the kitchen for the evening installed in The Ballroom, one can also expect to see this abundance of wild delicious dreams coming to life.
Replete with performance art, theatre and dance; the evening is planned as true feast for all the senses, and in all 5 flavours. Part of The Beautiful Project, the weekend’s events deal with ideas of beauty and ugliness, asking such questions as ‘What is the beautiful sensation?’, ‘What ideas of beauty exist in our South African context?’, and ‘What has been inherited, and what lost?’ Participating artists include Claire Berlein, Guy de Lancy, Fiona Du Plooy, Ntombi Gasa, Nicola Hanekom, Samantha Knight, Nelisiwa Rashualang, Julia Raynham, Gaëtan Schmid, Patrick de Wet, Celia & Nathalie Sidler, Dominique Ripoll-Dausa and the UCT Choir; in a programme featuring such risqué performances as an extract from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Salomé's Dance of the Seven Veils.
The food will relate to the art, dance and theatre, both as commentary and as an integral part of the performances. In this way, the links between food and emotional context will be deepened and explored, and combined with sensations of sound and sight. All the food promises to be extraordinary and delicious: Hayes specialises in beautifully presented, clean tasting, playful food - with a twist… Participants are encouraged to come with an open mind and hungry belly, and to dress fabulously! The Beautiful Feast is on 10 December at the City Hall in Darling Street, and begins at 7pm sharp. Tickets cost R80 and are available through Computicket.
The Beautiful Project takes place at UCT’s Hiddingh Campus and the Cape Town City Hall, 9 – 10 December 2011. For the full programme, visit www.gipca.uct.ac.za or contact the GIPCA office on 021 480 7156 / [email protected]. Tickets for Friday 9 December are R40 and available through the GIPCA office. The film screenings on Saturday 10 December are free of charge.
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