One-Woman Play Performs In Your Kitchen

Looks like performance artists are invading our homes now: first there was a Brooklyn woman offering to read to people until they fall asleep, and now a theater group is staging plays in strangers' kitchens.

British theater group Mora is bringing a play called "Crumble" to kitchens around New York. For a couple of hours, the group takes over a New York apartment, makes food in the kitchen (in character), and serves hors d'œuvre to guests.

"The idea stemmed from the play which was originally produced in a theater in London seven years ago," actress Laura Hooper told us in an email. "I specialize in making site-specific theater and thought the play would really come to life in real kitchens. The character is cooking obsessed, so by sharing her wacky food with the audience they get more than a taste of the world Sylvie Cranshaw lives in."

The play's protagonist, Sylvie Cranshaw, is a housewife hosting guests while her husband is away. "Crumble" starts off with some improvised banter, Hooper tells us, and then progresses into a formal play.

According to the website, "'Crumble' is the dark and funny story of a woman trying to escape her monotonous existence. She mistakes fantasy for reality and loses herself somewhere in the middle. Hidden between the lines of her scrawled recipe notes and the pages of her romantic fiction collection lies a dangerous truth... She didn't think her little habits would harm anyone... until now."

The play is apartment-hopping through New York City, with three more shows scheduled through June. Tickets are sold out, sadly, but you can always offer to host "Crumble" in your own home by emailing moratheater@gmail.com.

As for any cooking calamities in unfamiliar kitchens, Hooper tells us that she rarely runs into problems. "Although last week, to my horror, when I went to prepare Sylvie's Devilish Eggs I discovered they were soft boiled, not hard," she wrote. "Luckily my kitchen host had a dozen [eggs] so the problem was quickly rectified. I put it down to first night nerves!"

Check out the recipes from the play below. Hooper told us she tries to keep the menu seasonal, so in the fall they were serving a vegetarian crumble.