ABSTRACT
Omnium Gatherum stakes out overtly topical and political territory; its central metaphor of a post-9/11 dinner party came directly out of Rebeck and Gersten-Vassilaros's "feeling that living in New York was like being at a dinner party in hell". Omnium Gatherum stages a conversation among people who cover a spectrum of political and ideological interests. The New York producers, hedging their bets as to whether political discourse and "potentially somber subject matter" might scare audiences so soon after the attacks, didn't mention 9/11 in their press and promotional materials. Instead, publicity name-dropped the cast of famous types and held forth on the bill of fare that would be prepared by celebrity chefs for the production; press packets for critics also included a detailed description of the play's menu and the line-up of cordon bleus (Finkle). Staging Omnium Gatherum as an aesthetic and actual feast instructed audiences to admire the food.
