Meal Board is an interactive performance that combines the familiar social dynamics of meal times with the playful structures of board games to draw the audience into participation. Standard dinner table activities, consuming, talking, fidgeting and flirting are all included to create a constantly renewable din of dining behaviours.

The game takes place around a square table covered with an oversized gingham pattern on it. There are twelve plates with text instructions printed on them and a performer who discusses the game with the players. 

Each person translates the text on their plate into an action. Their individual performances overlap around the table and a conversation of sorts emerges creating a unified whole.

The game unfolds differently each time as fresh sets of parallel activities play out against each other creating near endless possibilities. Each time the rules emerge from the game play rather than the other way around: “Existence defines essence.”

Meal Board was performed for “Everyone is an Audience” at Soma Contemporary, in Waterford, Ireland in 2010 and twice in The Basement, in Brighton, England during 2011.