The Midnight Soup is a piece of theatre during which the audience prepare a meal that they share at the end.
The piece takes as its starting point the diary my grandmother wrote in 2006, and gifted me before committing suicide in 2012. The Midnight Soup is presented at a dinner table, for an audience of up to 14 guests. Over the course of this intimate performance meal, we explore themes of family, history and commemoration.
The Midnight Soup starts as a monologue, and in gentle and unpresuming ways opens out to become a conversation. It tells the story, of an unremarkable woman, who every day, sat down to meticulously record the facts of her life in a diary, until one early summer day, she chose her own death. The Midnight Soup is the love letter of a grandson to his grandmother. It is also an edible memorial, celebrating a life lived to the rhythm of the seasons.
The piece was first performed in Lancaster in 2014 and has since toured to a dozen towns and cities in the UK, from Margate to Sheffield to public and critical acclaim.
The script of The Midnight Soup was published in 2016 and is available to purchase online and order from your favourite bookshop.
“It is cleverly and subtly constructed. […] I like the fact that the piece, simply and without any fuss or forcing, makes a community out of a group of complete strangers.”
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian.
“This is a fascinating, intimate and very personal piece of theatre”
Quiet Man Dave, Blogger.
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Commissioned by Lancaster Arts, and developed with financial support from ARC (Stockton) & Space Six (Newcastle) and with thanks to Space Six & The Lowry. The piece was originally produced by Becci Sharrock with assistance from Phil Cole. Technical & Production Manager – Aly Howe, Lighting Designer – David McBride, Set & Costume – Lucille Acevedo-Jones, Graphics & Web Design – Adam York Gregory