house of sandwich
by david roby
"You won’t just enjoy every sandwich. You shall enjoy every sandwich."
by david roby
"You won’t just enjoy every sandwich. You shall enjoy every sandwich."
House of Sandwich is built from five distinct scenes connected through the theme of food.
Each creates its own world, set across different historical moments and shifting between humor, excess, and discomfort. The work draws on The Ridiculous Theatre tradition, where reality slips and performance takes over.
Each creates its own world, set across different historical moments and shifting between humor, excess, and discomfort. The work draws on The Ridiculous Theatre tradition, where reality slips and performance takes over.
I, JOHN MONTAGU,
OUT OF NECESSITY OR CONVENIENCE OR BOTH,
WHEN MY STOMACH WAS RAVENOUS,
AND BOTH MY HANDS WERE PREOCCUPIED,
WHEN A FORK AND A KNIFE WOULD SIMPLY NOT DO,
WHEN I HAD A GIRL ON EACH KNEE
AND A GAME OF CARDS HIGH AT STAKE,
WHEN NOTHING SEEMED LIKE IT COULD
SCRATCH THIS ITCH THAT I HAD
FOR A SLAB OF BEEF AND SOME STINKY CHEESE
AND A CRUST OF BREAD AND SOME PURPLE GRAPES,
IN NEED OF A VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY QUICK SUPPER,
INVENTED THE SANDWICH
a play about excess
by David Roby
Image Credit: Thomas Gainsborough, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Shutterstock.com;
Costumes are built through exaggeration and contrast rather than realism. A mostly white world connects all the scenes, with small bursts of color. John Montagu mixes aristocracy with indulgence, while his servant Longjaw—who listens but never hears—mirrors him in fragments. In White Flour, domestic order slips into something strange. In Charlotte Mason's operetta, costume becomes action-bread, eggs, and raw meat turning the body into spectacle.
The costumes don't fix identity-they push it toward grotesque.
The costumes don't fix identity-they push it toward grotesque.
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“A handful of intelligent, attractive and opinionated plays search for form within the intricacies of racial and sexual politics in these whip-smart new sandwiches. Through high drama and low comedy, bread and cheese, playwright David Roby brings this sextet of complicated histories to violent life.”