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Hunter Gatherers at Bricolage

By Food Collage

 

 
Last night was a fun foodie night in downtown Pittsburgh.  Following dinner at the recently opened NOLA On the Square (look for a blog post in the next week or two...I'm a bit backlogged right now!), a few foodie friends and I headed over to Bricolage on Liberty Ave to see a preview of Hunter Gatherers, a play written by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and directed by Jeffrey Carpenter.  (Special thanks goes to Tami Dixon, the Producing Artistic Director of Bricolage, for inviting us!)

Being fairly new to Pittsburgh, I hadn't heard of Bricolage before and honestly didn't know what to expect from the show, but the promise of dark comedy at a dinner party setting (and the hunk of fresh meat prominently featured on their poster) piqued my curiosity.

The play centers around two mismatched couples who are long-time friends, getting together for their annual anniversary dinner at one of the couples' loft apartment where all of the action takes place.

The "hunters" of the show, Richard (Jonathan Visser) and Wendy (Amy Landis), have an unmistakable fixation on sensual pleasures that borders on insanity.  Their delirious obsession with food and culinary perfection is translated into primal lust for other bodily pleasures.  (...Or is it the other way around?)  Sexual tensions abound...

The "gatherers," Pam (Tressa Glover) and Tom (Michael Fuller), appear meek enough on the outside, but are they truly as passive as they seem? Or are they suppressing inner "hunters" within them?

I am no theatre critic, and know nothing about the art of writing about a play without revealing too much, so I will just leave you with this tag line from the show itself:

"...not everyone will survive long enough to enjoy the brownies for dessert..."

Intrigued yet?  The 90-minute play is hilarious and entertaining.  If you're the type who is into raunchy humor (or at least doesn't mind it), you will enjoy this show.  The pace is fast and there is never a dull moment.  While Hunter Gatherers is not a play about food per se, the notion of one's passion for food and its parallel with sexual desires certainly takes center stage in this play.  After all, if both are forms of sensual experiences, what is the difference, really?  Finally, the casting was impeccable and the actors were simply fabulous.  It is definitely a show worth seeing.  Just make sure you leave your kids at home!

Hunter Gatherers opens tonight (April 14) and runs through May 7.  Check out Bricolage's website for more details.