We've been reviewed! "In the Eye of the Menu"

When the Menu Strikes, Make Sure You’re in the Eye
The Bad Musical Theatre Team reviews the latest production from Bemused Production Absurdities.

It seems that Bemused Production Absurdities and their corporate sponsors, the Desperate Food Thieves Catering Company, have finally hit their theatrical stride with “In the Eye of the Menu”.

Purporting to be the sequel to the somewhat interesting and at least well-attended “The Cafeteria of the Mind”, “In the Eye of the Menu” stands alone as an outstanding work of theatre.

“Menu”, on the face of it, does not appear to have a lot to offer. The tale of the trials and tribulations of a furniture salesman as he searches for the perfect restaurant with which to impress his long-distance girl could strike as either deathless soap opera or a molar-grinding foray into gritty, but at bottom commonplace, realism. “Menu” manages to sidestep both of these extremes quite nicely and present a cast of well written, if occasionally derivative, characters interacting on a backdrop of several eating establishments.

The storyline is fairly simple – boy has girl, but they cannot be together, boy marks time until girl can return. Nothing really happens – and yet everything does. Borrowing heavily from several sources, including Shakespeare’s “low” touches in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Beckett (of course, Waiting for Godot) and, surprisingly, Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove to name a few, “Menu” brings a fresh look to the search for perfection to impress the ones we love, including touches of the bizarre throughout.

These include the salesman’s head office pushing xylene-softened cornflakes to replace upholstery, the singing of furniture at unexpected moments and the wonderful Iva Tycoon as the utterly mad-confused-and-confusing customer who absolutely cannot make a decision, who resolutely pops up in every restaurant our hero tries. These odd ornaments to the main story serve to introduce and maintain a motif of levity in the midst of what would otherwise be mundane drama. The comic touches occasionally venture into dark humour, and yet the overwhelming feel is one of the general lightness that people, in this set of diners at least, use to carry them through their lives – the good, the bad, and the in-between.

Despite the somewhat manic billing for “Menu”, the play presents as straight drama, riffs of humour and homage-laden subplots notwithstanding. One suspects that the subplots are the main reason for the production. Homage they may be, they are nevertheless skilfully and cheekily done – there is a soupçon of Mellors’ final letter that ends D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in the way Egan Ham portrays his relationship with his unnamed girl. Indeed the billing is the one sour note in the entire experience that “In the Eye of the Menu” presents its audience.

In final analysis, there really is very little in the way of plot – one has the sense that the writer (who is as yet unidentified – as with most the BPA/DFT work) wrote as if riding a go-cart with hands off the controls and eyes shut yelling “WHEEEEE!” as it hurtled down a hill. Nevertheless, “In the Eye of the Menu” offers a rich exploration of humanity and human beings, even with such a small canvas as this.

Our rating: A

In the Eye of the Menu

The Desperate Food Thieves Catering Company
in association with
Bemused Production Absurdities
are pleased to present
The Sanity Suspect Players
in
“In the Eye of the Menu”

Tragedy! Redemption! Romance! Grief! Mystery! Farce! Absolutely NO stolen food! Welcome to the sequel of that most wondrous of works, “The Cafeteria of the Mind”. You thought it was all over, but NO! Once and again, emphatically NO! Thrill to the scrapes of a furniture salesman and his long-distance girl (who never appears). Watch as he gorges himself at local eateries as he strives to find the ideal romantic dining service for his girl. Will there be a vanquishing of a villain? Will marble ottomans take off? Will cornflakes replace upholstery? For the answer to all of these questions, and others, you’ll have to see

“In the Eye of the Menu”
presented in 3¼ acts

Featuring:

Egan Ham as the furniture salesman

Iva Tycoon as the perpetually undecided customer searching for that perfect parfait

Sam Agan as the waiter

And a special appearance by:

The Desperate Food Thieves Catering Company Diversion Service as furniture


“Please lose my number, my liver can’t take any more stolen hubcaps” – Pretend critic service.

“What a hoot! I always thought an ottoman was a German butler!” – Our work-experience diversion service trainee.

Don’t miss out on this wonderful exploration of the human condition – appearing at a local food store near you!

One week only!

“In the Eye of the Menu”

The Desperate Food Thieves Catering Company in association with Bemused Production Absurdities present “In the Eye of the Menu”, starring the Sanity Suspect Players. Casting by the Unrepentant Vigilante Mob of Stolen Food Against Food Theft. All Rights Reserved.