Trends come and go. Raw egg was an unlikely theme running through Broadway shows this summer; in Cabaret, Sally Bowles, mixed them with Worcestershire sauce – a prairie oyster – and drank them for breakfast. In The Cripple of Inishmaan, Martin McDonagh’s black comedy about life in the Aran Islands in 1934, thirty six eggs were sacrificed per show. A record for the Most Eggs Sacrificed in the Name of Art, declared The New Yorker. But they were wrong. Jeanne Mordoj sacrifices 40 every time she performs La Poème, her joyously strange and personal play celebrating the feminine.; 760 in total during her run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013.

Jeanne immersed herself in all things zygote at Kings College, London researching the third instalment of La Poème which premiered in 2016.  Her varied week included PhD student Tom Gould meditating on being encased in an eggshell, Richard Haughton discussing his work photographing eggs for world class chefs, nutritionist Sue Reeves answering questions about the best way to cook eggs to retain their nutrients and Josh Abrams, University of Roehampton, talking about the kitchen as a place of performance. The week was rounded off by a a visit to the charming Hackney City Farm where Charlotte, the farmer, related some engaging stories about the behaviour of their chickens. Apparently Jackie Chan their miniature rooster developed a crush on her as if she was a hen, and had to be sent to the ‘naughty house’ for his outrageous behaviour!