Nigel Slater’s Toast at the Lawrence Batley Theatre

Following its world premiere at The Lowry in Salford, and a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018, Nigel Slater’s Toast received a well-deserved London transfer. Big fans of the show – we’re thrilled that the production will now embark on a UK tour – launching at Huddersfield’s Lawrence Batley Theatre.

Adapted for performance by Henry Filloux-Bennett, the production is inspired by Nigel Slater’s award-winning food memoir Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger.

Toast is the story of Nigel Slater’s childhood told through the tastes and smells of the food that he grew up with. A moving autobiography, Toast focuses on Slater’s love of food, his younger days, the relationships with his family and his burgeoning sexuality.

Director Jonnie Riordan has also managed to incorporate ‘a series of communal eating interventions’ as a brilliant way of getting the audience to share the same tastes, aromas and feelings of nostalgia associated with childhood. Food Consultant James Thompson has worked closely with the creative team to create an interactive and highly enjoyable experience for the audience. Expect the sweet smell of bread and butter pudding and jam tarts wafting through the auditorium.

This production is sure to evoke foodie memories in all of us – whether that is sherry trifle, old-fashioned corner shop sweets or Angel Delight. And it is brilliant that food has the ability to transport us to a memory or safe place. Toast is also much more than this – it’s about love, loss, family and growing up.

A brilliant coming of age narrative and a truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Toast is sure to whet the appetites of foodies and theatre-lovers as they share the origins of Nigel Slater’s lifelong passion for food.