Photo Flash: Folger Theatre Presents CONFECTION

Folger Theatre presents the world premiere of Confection, an immersive theater piece imagined and performed by New York's acclaimed theater company, Third Rail Projects. Confection is conceived and written by Zach Morris, directed and choreographed by Zach Morris, with Tom Pearson and Jennine Willett, and created in collaboration with the company. Commissioned by Folger Theatre in association with Before 'Farm to Table': Early Modern Foodways and Cultures, Confection is a rollicking rumination on opulence, inequity, and teeny-tiny desserts.

Inspired by the rich collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library and by Folger Theatre's concurrent production of Nell Gwynn, Third Rail Projects' embraced accounts of the extravagant banquets and sumptuous feasts held by the aristocracy of the late 17th-century, the period of Nell Gwynn, as a springboard, Confection is a multi-sensory dance and theater performance that contemplates cultures of consumption and poses the questions: How much does sweetness cost and what are we willing to devour to slake our appetites?

Folger's Artistic Producer Janet Alexander Griffin said "This commissioned work showcases Folger's intention to create art inspired by the extraordinary treasures in the library's collections and to give scholars and artists the opportunity to inspire each other in amazing ways."

In this 45-minute experience, audiences are granted access to the Folger's private Reading Rooms, as the performance winds its way through the striking spaces, and are invited to savor bite-sized delights by local pâtissiers.

This special production will be presented in the splendor of the Folger's Paster and Sedgwick-Bond Reading Rooms from March 4 through 24, 2019, routinely reserved for scholars' work and not part of the Folger open to the public.

"As makers of site-specific and experiential theater, our company has a deep love of conducting rigorous research into attendant thematic topics of any new work and the architecture of the site in which it is located," says Zach Morris. "It was a particular delight to work alongside the Folger staff to delve into the collection. Through this process, we discovered breathtaking, jaw-dropping, and sometimes chilling accounts of the practicality and politics of food during the Early Modern era. Confection is a research-fueled romp that aims to summon emanations from these texts and make manifest the corporeal cost of decadence and disparity."

Folger Theatre's production of Nell Gwynn is on stage January 29 through March 10, 2019. The Olivier Award-winning comedy sensation from London by Jessica Swale, commissioned by Shakespeare's Globe and produced by the Folger in its American East Coast premiere, follows an orange seller from the streets of Drury Lane as she becomes the darling of the Restoration theater-and the favorite mistress of Charles II.

Confection also runs during the exhibition First Chefs: Fame and Foodways from Britain to the Americas, on display in the Folger's Great Hall January 19 through March 31, 2019. First Chefs tells the stories of the named and unnamed heroes of early modern food culture, and juxtaposes the extravagance of an increasingly cosmopolitan and wealthy upper class against the human cost of its pleasures.

Tickets at $40 - $60 are available online at www.folger.edu/theatre or by calling the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077. There is a maximum capacity of 50 audience members per performance.

Photo Credit: Brittany Diliberto.