THE TABLE OF DELIGHTS: A TASTING IN FIVE ACTS

So not quite sure what to expect from this other than it has stated to dress for dinner.

"The orchestra plays chords of sweet spice, - In the wings vegetables tremble with stage fright, - A cruel chef sharpens his knives in the spotlight - and our hungry audience is centre stage... Back from a critically acclaimed run in New York, Theatre Damfino (whose Tristan Sturrock and musician Benji Bower you may have seen here in Peter Pan last Christmas) cook up a new night out, alongside two of Bristol's favourite, award-winning chefs, Flinty Red's Matt Williamson and Claire Thomson. Together, they blend the finest ingredients of music, food, theatre and wine into a unique and mouth-watering supper for the senses."

At the head of the table, Flinty Red chef Matt Williamson cooked as actors dressed as waiters served the food and introduced each course with anecdotes and stories peppered with humour and facts about food history.

Each course highlighted different ingredients – bread, eggs, beetroot, spices, honey – and as the audience dined, they were accompanied by an appropriately quirky live score from the always-impressive Bower Brothers. The laidback funk groove of Barry Egg White and his band during the egg scene was a particular highlight.

But it wasn’t just the band that provided the musical backdrop as the sounds of the restaurant and kitchen all added to the soundtrack as waiters clapped clouds of flour, fingers rubbed the rims of crystal wine glasses and eggs were rhythmically whisked in bowls.

There were visual treats, too – from the head of a waiter presented under a silver cloche in the middle of the table and ice cream conjured from dry ice to beetroots being blitzed in blenders under blood-red lights and an egg being shot by canon across the room, through a hoop and into a mixing bowl.

And just as you thought it couldn't get anymore surreal, a diva-like female singer in a long gold dress appeared from nowhere, walking up and down the table singing about honey.

By the end, the dinner table resembled a medieval feast as the audience tucked into their meal, the spicy aromas wafting around the auditorium.

A dinner party masquerading as a play or a play masquerading as a dinner party?