Theatre show I Could Eat a Horse explores food trading, shopping and consuming

Exposing dark underbelly of rich diversity of food available in UK

I Could Eat a Horse, borne of seeds planted by A Moment’s Peace Theatre Company last year, is a work-in-progress, but one which is constantly evolving, based on audience interpretations of the way we buy, grow, ship and eat food.

‘Everyone we’ve spoken to has something to say about food and an awareness that there is a darker underbelly to the rich diversity of food available to us in this country,’ says artistic director Catrin Evans.

In the style of a Biblical narrative, the show takes a playful look at food as the ‘ultimate currency of survival’, combining text from interviews carried out during research periods with epic storytelling. A host of potential main themes (including the obesity/starvation dichotomy and fasting as political protest) were whittled away until the production reached its present incarnation: an exploration of the rise of supermarkets and the dangers they present.

‘I think people fear change because they’ve got this irrational fear that if we stop trading, shopping, consuming the way we do we’ll suddenly all start starving. Extremes are always an interesting thing to explore in theatre.’

Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Fri 20 & Sat 21 Jul