An unusual take on Wagner’s master singer Hans Sachs, The Fool Eater used one of the medieval farces of Richard Wager’s favourite shoemaker and poet to address contemporary questions of loneliness, obesity and sexual identity in form of a humoristic reading. In the original story, a medieval quack doctor cures a patient of his sins by operating personified vices out of him in grotesque fashion. Our interactive storytelling event deployed the medieval blueprint and updated it for people who struggle with the norms in British society today and feel isolated or marginalised. Through moments of audience interaction, such as eating brownies at a particular moment in the story or blowing a duck whistle, the performers and the audience shared the performance experience and thereby created an inclusive climate to counterbalance feelings of isolation and loneliness.

He lived in a flat in Hackney, between old industrial buildings, late Victorian houses and a whole hipster empire. Cheering sounds from the nearby theatre sharpened his loneliness.

“I enjoyed the show and feel that it would lend itself to useful material for drama therapy.”

— Jacqueline Francis, certified dramatherapist