THE STORY: Mina and Ben, two strangers who frequent the same café, strike up a conversation and decide to have dinner together. But something strange is happening in the city outside: The streets are empty and a bird calls a warning. Amidst this unsettling atmosphere, Mina and Ben find themselves in the only place still open: a mysterious restaurant where service is an art, the chef may be a god, and food is a portal to other—better—worlds. Endlessly surprising and surprisingly moving, STAFF MEAL is a surreal dark comedy about the stories we tell and the ways we take care of each other when the world grows dark.
“A quietly surreal shape-shifter of a play with a tilted sense of humor and a generous, sorrowful heart. We tumble through its funny, eerie evocation of the moment that made—is still making—our present, and we come out the other side feeling, for all its ebb toward emptiness, full.” —New York Magazine.
“Scenes zig and zag in a dream logic…it’s hard to describe exactly what happens in STAFF MEAL, much less diminish your enjoyment of its uncanny, elegiac flux. Koogler stokes our affection for the comforts of civilization but also underscores how fragile they are. Take my advice: book a table.” —Observer.
“Deliciously deranged.” —The Wall Street Journal.
