Candy, Cake Leigh Henderson Candy, Cake Leigh Henderson

Edible Dramaturgy: Exploring death and fetish through candy

This is a performance I did with my friend and collaborator Kristin Hunt at the Makers Exhibition at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. The menu consisted of single peas, pea gummies, pea soda, capsaicin spun sugar, red wine gummies, black pepper conversation hearts, and pea cake balls filled with garlic marshmallow.

Woman in an apron laying out a row of balls on cake on a large table

This is a performance I did with my friend and collaborator Kristin Hunt at the Makers Exhibition at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. It’s based on two of our previous edible dramaturgy performances, Woyzeck (2013) and Miss Julie (2014). Guests were presented parallel, five-course tasting menus that led them through Woyzeck’s increasing madness and Miss Julie’s sexual surrender through the scent, taste, and texture of the food.

The menu consisted of single peas, pea gummies, pea soda, capsaicin spun sugar, red wine gummies, black pepper conversation hearts, and pea cake balls filled with garlic marshmallow.

Pile of peas on toothpicks next to a paper that reads, "Pea: We have seen that physical love has taken possession of all the sciences. In this respect it acts with its habitual tyranny."
Line of pea gummies next to a paper that reads: "Pea + sugar + agar: Man is omnivorous. All that is edible is subjected to his vast appetite, a thing which causes gustatory powers proportionate to the use he has to make of them ..."
Line of small cups fo pea soda next to a paper that reads, "Pea + soda + sugar" As soon as any esculent body is introduced into the mouth it is confiscated hopelessly, gas, juice, and all. The lips prevent its retrogression. ..."
Pile of red spun sugar next to a paper that reads, "Capsaicin + cotton candy: Capsaicin's effects begin immediately upon contact with the skin. The lips swell to a pout. A flush steals across the cheeks as its sting quickens the appetite ..."
Rows of wine gummies next to a paper that reads, "Wine + sugar: In the game of seduction, the fruit of the vine is a matchless competitor. Its appearance swells our anticipation even as its aroma evokes the musk of secret conquest ..."
Rows of pink heart-shaped candy next to paper that reads, "Black pepper + sugar + vegan gelatin: It is written in the Kama Sutra that if one, after anointing oneself with a mixture of the powder of the black pepper and honey ..."
Row of balls of pea cake filled with marshmallow next to a paper that reads, "Pea + cake + garlic + vegan marshmallow: Let us now glance at the system of our senses, considered together ..."
People at a long table interact with the artwork
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Candy Leigh Henderson Candy Leigh Henderson

Miss Julie

My friend Kristin Hunt invited me to create aphrodisiac candy recipes for a production of Miss Julie at Northeastern Illinois University - roasted garlic marshmallow, salted truffle caramels, red wine gummies, habanero cotton candy, and oyster white chocolate ganache.

A row of boxes of candies arranged on a table

My friend Kristin Hunt invited me to create aphrodisiac candy recipes for a production of Miss Julie at Northeastern Illinois University. These photos are from the production, so I didn’t make the candy myself, but they are my recipes - roasted garlic marshmallow, salted truffle caramels, red wine gummies, habanero cotton candy, and oyster white chocolate ganache. There were also black pepper conversation hearts, but that one was Kristin’s recipe, not mine. I tried to invent oyster cordial cherries, but I couldn’t get them not to be gross.

Close up of caramels in paper liners
Close up of marshmallows with honey in paper liners
Close up of chocolate candies in paper liners
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Cake Leigh Henderson Cake Leigh Henderson

Woyzeck

I was the production designer for a production of Woyzeck at the University of Wisconsin - Madison’s University Theatre. At the end of the play, the corpse of Woyzeck’s murdered lover Marie was lowered from the ceiling. The corpse was made of styrofoam, but I used fondant to decorate it as I would a cake. The open chest cavity was full of pea-flavored cake balls.

In the foreground, a life sized replica of a dismembered corpse. In the background, an actor, dramatically lit, wearing circus makeup

I was the production designer for a production of Woyzeck at the University of Wisconsin - Madison’s University Theatre. The title characters eats nothing but peas, so the director, Kristin Hunt, and I created a pea-flavored tasting menu that we served to the audience over the course of the play.

The tasting menu began with a single pea and included pea flavored gum, pea flavored soda, and pea flavored jello. At the end of the play, the corpse of Woyzeck’s murdered lover Marie was lowered from the ceiling. The corpse was made of styrofoam, but I used fondant to decorate it as I would a cake. The open chest cavity was full of pea-flavored cake balls. As the audience filed out of the theater, they were invited to take a cake ball from the corpse.

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