FOOD AND WINE AT THE THEATRE

Wine, oil, truffles and more are ready to go on stage. The curtain is about to open on the ‘EaT – Enogastronomy at the Theatre’ event in Spoleto, a three-day event (25, 26 and 27 November 2022) that takes place at the Teatro Caio Melisso (the city’s oldest Italian-style theatre).

An unusual combination of food and wine and theatre where the audience empties out of its seats to accommodate tables and chairs, and where spectators taste, listen and participate in performances by chefs, actors and musicians. As a new format, EaT therefore proposes three days of performances, music and tastings dedicated to food and wine, where the audience will be actively involved: actors and spectators will sit at the same table and share food and music.

Shows that become a flywheel for the promotion of local products in a unique and innovative key, also due to the special menus that will accompany them both at lunch and dinner: the “Concert you can eat” curated by Food Ensemble, the theatrical show with a dinner based on wine and wild boar (“Nato Cinghiale” by and with Alessandro Sesti and Debora Contini), a large table where actors and spectators come together to share lunchtime thanks to the “Teatro da mangiare” curated by the Teatro delle Ariette (for this show, the appointment is at the former Civic Museum, Palazzo della Signoria).

And then, as other ‘ingredients’ of the event, the culture of oil (appointment with Maurizio Pescari, author of the book ‘L’olio e gli altri ingredienti della nostra vita‘), the thousand faces of Trebbiano Spoletino (wines and words on a great white of the territory together with critic Antonio Boco and actor Gianluca Foresi) and the cooking show Marco Gubbiotti vs Giorgione.

Highly anticipated is the Food Sound System, a multimedia show of cooking, live music, theatre and video by Donpasta, chef, poet and ecologist. According to the New York Times, “one (and in some ways unique) of the most inventive food activists”. On stage, Daniele de Michele, his real name, uses vinyl and pots simultaneously, mixers and mini-pimers to blend music and veloutés. A console, a kitchen top, cookers and vinyl, knives and Technics 1200s dirty each other with good vibes and flour, soft and durum wheat for the irreplaceable ‘Imperia’ crank that churns out tagliatelle. All the senses are engaged: sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing. It is a multimedia performance in which we let ourselves go to the emotion of food, its scents, colours, shapes and aromas. The DJ set is spiced with sounds from all over the world, including funk, reggae, South America and mestizo London.

Bruschettas with new extra virgin olive oil from Monini (main supporter of the event together with Urbani Tartufi) will be served at every performance.

“EaT – Enogastronomia a Teatro” is organised by Andrea Castellani, AC Company srl and Anna Setteposte, Anna7Poste Eventi&Comunicazione srl in collaboration with the City of Spoleto and GAL Valle Umbra e Sibillini.

PROGRAMME

Friday 25 November

5.00 pm Opening

6.00 pm Teatro Caio Melisso Food Ensemble – A Concert You Can Eat –
A sensory experience to be lived like a concert, a performance to be enjoyed like an aperitif. A sound composition performed with the sounds of food being savoured.

9.00 pm Nato cinghiale – Theatre performance with dinner by and with Alessandro Sesti and Debora Contini. Dramaturgy Alessandro Sesti, music performed live by Debora Contini. Thanks to Giacomo Sette, Patrizio, Giuliana and Franco. Production Strabismi, Thesorieri Theatre.
In collaboration with Qui e Ora theatrical residence. Play with food 2021 selection.

The menu: bruschetta with new oil, wild boar stew, wine (no vegetarian variants available).

Saturday 26 November

11.00 am book presentation: “L’olio e gli altri ingredienti della nostra vita”
The guidelines of the book ‘L’olio e gli altri ingredienti della nostra vita’ (Rubbettino) brought to the theatre by the author, Maurizio Pescari, who skilfully spans the values that revolve around the culture of oil: from customs to traditions, from commodity to fundamental ingredient. The human being is always the conscious or unconscious protagonist of his choices.

1.00 pm Teatro delle Ariette – “Teatro da mangiare” by Paola Berselli and Stefano Pasquini, featuring Paola Berselli, Maurizio Ferraresi and Stefano Pasquini. Director Stefano Pasquini.
A large table where actors and spectators gather, to share the time of a meal, a rite so profoundly human that it catapults us into the heart of our present, into the absolute moment of the ‘here and now’, without mediation, into the evident and disarming truth of our lives.

Menu: semintegral bread (organic Ariette flour); seasonal vegetables (organic Ariette) with green sauce; ‘Contadino’ cow’s cheese from the Valsamoggia dairy; local salami from the Franceschini salumificio (Valsamoggia); semintegral tagliatelle (organic Ariette flour and Ariette eggs) with walnut, almond and rosemary pesto.

5.00 pm Teatro Caio Melisso Masterclass “I mille volti del Trebbiano Spoletino”
All interpretations of Trebbiano from sparkling to sweet wine, through maceration and maturation in wood.

9.00 pm Teatro Caio Melisso Food Ensemble – A Concert You Can Eat –
A sensory experience to be lived like a concert, a performance to be enjoyed like a dinner. A sound composition performed with the sounds of food being savoured. Concert and tasting five dishes, a menu designed just for the occasion with local products, with a glass of wine.

Sunday 27 November

11.00 am Cooking Show, Marco Gubbiotti Vs Giorgione – La cucina spoletina

1.30 pm Teatro delle Ariette – “Teatro da mangiare” by Paola Berselli and Stefano Pasquini, featuring Paola Berselli, Maurizio Ferraresi and Stefano Pasquini. Director Stefano Pasquini.
A large table where actors and spectators gather, to share the time of a meal, a rite so profoundly human that it catapults us into the heart of our present, into the absolute moment of the ‘here and now’, without mediation, into the evident and disarming truth of our lives.

6.00 pm Food Sound System – Cooking show, live music, theatre and video
‘If you have a problem… add some oil’, this is the motto of Donpasta, poet and ecologist chef. Food Sound System is his multimedia project in which Salento cuisine, music, folk tales and images are mixed for an all-round show. The music, strictly live, plays towards the cookers and the cookers repay it in the same coin. New musical lasagne sprinkled with reggae, jazz and rock.

Warning: the kitchen images are real films about the creation of a dish. It is highly recommended to eat before watching the show, to avoid hunger pangs or rash assaults on adjacent kitchens.

Wine and theatre. The first edition of “EaT – Enogastronomy at the Theatre“, the new format capable of linking food and entertainment on the stage of the oldest Italian theatre in the city of Spoleto, the Caio Melisso, is born from an unusual combination, scheduled for 25, 26 and 27 November. Three days of performances, music and tastings dedicated to food and wine, where the audience will be actively involved: actors and spectators will sit at the same table and share food and music.

Independent and innovative productions, able to involve and amaze, no distance between audience and stage, the theatre space is shared entirely in a unique experiential conviviality key. This, but also much more, is “EaT – Enogastronomy at the Theatre”, where the scheduled shows become a flywheel for the promotion of local products in a unique and innovative key. The concert you can eat, the theatre show with a dinner based on wine and wild boar, a large table where actors and spectators come together to share a meal, the culture of oil and the thousand faces of Trebbiano Spoletino are some of the ingredients of the event. But also the cooking show Marco Gubbiotti versus Giorgione and the Food Sound System, a cooking, live music, theatre and video show by Donpasta, cook, poet and ecologist.

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