artwork spotlight | the meal

THE MEAL is a guest production, directed by Richard Wolfe (THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED), created by Rick Maddocks and performed by The Lost Gospel Ensemble.  Here is our analysis of the artwork created for this piece by Emily Cooper.

A "gospel funk" song cycle, THE MEAL tells the story of the Last Supper, before and after Jesus' presence.  The singers await their guest of honour and then discuss (or rather, sing about) what happened after he's gone.

To the artwork:

It is an obvious depiction of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper, with Jesus conspicuously absent in the middle.

The characters are all represented as birds, which fits in quite nicely with their penchant for singing.

On the table we have traditional music notation, drawing another connection in with the music of this piece.

PS from Ron: here's an earlier version of the image, before Emily knew that THE MEAL wouldn't include Jesus himself...