Gastronomic review – high-flying, fine-dining theatre

Norwich Theatre Royal
Audiences experience a taste of how the 1% travel - and eat - in Curious Directive's ambitious show

It took years of experimenting for the Wright brothers to get airborne. So it's not too bad a sign that Gastronomic, set aboard a plane flying from Beirut to London, doesn't quite take off.

The company Curious Directive aims to blend theatre with both dining and augmented reality (AR), a technique that overlays the real world with digital imagery. An audience of 40 are fed a five-course taster menu while the narrative unfolds around them, but technical issues for the performance I saw left us without the AR element, which meant we didn't see some planned "microscenes".