About Acute Bliss!
Acute Bliss! was commissioned by Wayward Plants, an organization devoted to landscape architecture, urban renewal, and environmentally-minded community outreach projects. Flying Orchard was asked to create a theatrical event inspired by Wayward Plants’ project The Urban Physic Garden, a pop-up public educational and recreational space created for and by the Southwark community. Drawing inspiration from the hospital-themed groupings of flora, through intense research into quackery, mythology, history, and herbology, we developed an interactive, immersive event that was structured around a three-course dinner where the food and beverages became integral components in the world of the show. Our principal collaborators were the culinary innovators, Rambling Restaurant, who had converted an ambulance into a kitchen and recycled human waste to create fuel for cooking. Audience members became patients as they entered the garden and received ministrations for their modern malaise from the mysterious Dr. Uber. The piece was a playful exploration of health, happiness, and wealth, presented under the stars, that used the entire compound of the temporary park as a promenade culinary theatrical adventure.