Carnivorous Salon

©Copyright 2002-2008
[Shawn Nacol]
All rights reserved

a Comedy without Manners

by Shawn Nacol

Eye for an eye. Truth for a truth. History:
1993 Equity Production (Wicked Engine/Richard Sheppard) @ Canal Theatre (London)
1993 Commission Workshop @ Lyric Hammersmith Studio (London)

A few reviews:

"...a veritable feast for the eyes. Directed with style and not a little smugness by the author... most definitely well-cast."

"Sensually sumptuous."

"The production is a delight, the voices soft and mellow, and the rhythm of the piece exquisitely warming."

A Wicked Engine Production

Cast:

Zoë.....................Gabriella Ollandini

Max........................Richard Waters

Theo.......................Frances Clarke

Morgan.....................Claire Becker

Jaquel.......................Sara Morgan

Damiano......................Matt Selby

Production Staff

Stage Manager...................................Samantha Harvey

Production Design......................Rickey Lee Babineaux

Lighting............................................Michael Curbishley

Technical Swing.........................................William Petty

Photographer..............................................Bob Wheeler

Managing Director.............................Richard Sheppard

Marketing Director...................................Amy Girdwood

Special Thanks to Jackie Curbishley, Andrew & Jackie Green, Joe McGann, Julian Bigg, Gaby Ollandini, Claire Becker, Bob Wheeler, Harriet & Everyone at the Bridge House.

We are so created that without something to wonder at we should find life scarcely worth living. That fact does not make ignorance bliss, or make it "folly to be wise." For the wisest man never gets beyond the reach of novelty, nor can ever make it his boast that there is nothing he is ignorant of; on the contrary, the wiser he becomes the more clearly he sees how much there is of which he remains in ignorance. The more he knows, the more he will find to wonder at.

Harry Houdini

Carnivorous Salon began as a footnote in a terrific book of historical criticism called Theatre, Aristocracy, and Pornocracy : The Orgy Calculus by Karl Toepfer

The book focused on the clandestine theatre explosion of the late 18th century. I stumbled over a paragraph about a play that couldn't be performed because its hero was required to literally screw himself to death. At 23 years of age, I thought that seemed a compulsively stageable idea...