I’m loth to kink-shame, but I’m not sure I can get behind consensual cannibalism. Conflicted Theatre’s unnerving comedy is inspired by the 2001 case of Armin Meiwes, who killed and ate a man he found online. Crucially, the man on the menu agreed to the whole affair. Featuring a present-day copycat version of Meiwes’s fantasy, this disturbing two-hander is surprisingly funny, laced with an edge of something metallic.
This weekend-long date between ready-to-eat Sam (Pedro Leandro) and unashamed cannibal Nick (Eddie Loodmer-Elliott) takes place in a makeshift kitchen with a backdrop of murder-scene plastic. Written by both actors with director Evan Lordan, there is a lightness to the dialogue, their natural first-date chatter moving seamlessly between the best way to cook a carbonara and how to sauté a human thigh. References to flavour recur in Nick’s speech, as if his desire for human meat is an indicator of the very finest of tastes.
