The Theater of Food

This study analyzes how 20th- and 21st-century U.S. playwrights, belonging to various ethnic or religious groups, have used food in their dramatic works. The 16 chapters, each devoted to an individual play, show how Glaspell, O'Neill, Wilder, Odets, Kaufman, Miller, Williams, Shepard, Mamet, Wilson, Margulies, LaBute, Ruhl, Letts, Still, and Cho have used food in their plays and how food resonates with the artistic projects of each. Also considered are passages from 140 other U.S. plays that depict comparable food-related scenes, and culinary investigations help characterize the authors' aesthetics.