2015FEASU_ANFSpaghetti is thrown. Cornflakes fall from the air. Wine is spilt. The stage is a mess. Here lies the remnants of FEAST, Clout Theatre’s gutsy exploration of humanity’s relationship with food.

What can I say about FEAST? It may not be immersive, but FEAST seems to be one of those shows where to be there is to experience, not simply watch. They do nothing by halves: when the performers spit wine out at each other, it’s not long before the rich odour of pinot noir diffuses into the auditorium, masking the earthy smell of soil that lingered before. No Ribena used here.

My predominant thoughts while watching FEAST are wondering why any performer would put themself through this. One ravenously eats a raw onion. One spends a good ten minutes hanging over the edge of a table with her face wrapped tightly in cling film (I’m still not quite sure how she managed to breathe). One has a cherry tomato stuffed up his derriere. And what’s the point of all this? I’m sure there is some deep abstract reasoning for all this grotesqueness. This reasoning probably lies deep, deep in the darkest, weirdest realms of human psychology.

Making performers suffer can be shocking and thought-provoking when it appears symbolic, but here any symbolism is suffocated by the fact that everything is just too messy – figuratively and literally. There’s at least one overt metaphor used in FEAST – all I’m saying is that it involves half a melon and a courgette and is not suitable for children. I’ll leave that to your imagination.

After a while, I begin to feel as though mess is being made for the sake of making mess – the fact that they’re creating mess with food seems irrelevant. The same show could be performed with polystyrene, glitter, paint and cement and not much would change (it’d be prettier though, and more fun for the actors). In this sense, FEAST sort of loses its meaning and veers too abstractly away from the topic they claim to be exploring.

All in all, FEAST leaves us with is a lot of convoluted metaphors and one hell of a clean-up job. Bon appetit, everyone.

FEAST is playing at Zoo (Venue 124) until 31 August as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. For more information, visit the Edinburgh Fringe website.