Following performances in primary schools in Easterhouse, Kinross and Edinburgh, Toast with lots of butter  will have its public premiere at Perth Theatre this October, as part of HOOT!, a comedy theatre festival from Dirliebane Theatre Company in collaboration with Perth Theatre. HOOT! is a festival for children aged 0-12 and their families.

Buy your tickets here!

 

Toast with lots of butter is a comedic theatre show for ages 8-12, made by lovebug + worm and produced by Tanya McLaughlin. This show is all about food. It’s about chips, trips to the big supermarket, the wonder of chocolate fountains and conveyor belt toaster machines, and very important questions, like what is the right way to eat a cheese string?

 

Toast with lots of butter  follows the busy day of two dinner ladies, all glammed up in their crocs, pasta necklaces and pop rings. Featuring very close close-ups on the big projector screen and a well-intended yet deeply flawed green screen attempt, they are working on a very important show for a very important audience: the children they feed every day. The audience is invited behind the scenes, privy to the take twos, threes and fours, and to the quieter moments before the bell when tiredness catches up with them. They share their dreams and try their best to make them come true, whether that be making the perfect lasagna where everyone gets their perfect slice, or having the stopping power of a lollipop lady. They share their exhaustion and their anxieties, and they pick each other up, again and again. In between reheating cups of tea and rehearsing dance routines, from nail biting tray-balancing to roaring jump roping, this show highlights the never-ending job of caring and cooking for people.

 

Celebrating  food as a way to connect with people, as a way to care for people, and as a way to remember people,Toast with lots of butter is energetic, endearing, slightly absurd, very melodramatic, familiar and honest, with themes of care and community running throughout. The show’s music, composed by Ben Fletcher, reflects the busyness of the characters’ everyday, immersing us in their ambitious imagination, cherished memories and hard hitting realities - all through the lens of food. 

 

As part of the show’s R&D, we are working with Corstorphine Primary School in Edinburgh, and with Fossoway Primary School in Kinross through Dirliebane Theatre Company’s HOOT! engagement programme. We delivered drama workshops for the P5-P7 leaners all about food, home, care, dreams and ambitions, framing them as official favourite food experts, and interviewed  the school catering staff too. Inspired by these workshops, we made a creative resource for teachers to use with their classes before watching Toast with lots of butter, which will be performed in their school's cafeterias.

 

Supported by Creative Scotland’s Open Fund, Dirliebane Theatre Company and Platform.​