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Bruce Bogtrotter's Cake at the Theatre

I recently saw Matilda The Musical at the Cambridge theatre and was particularly interested in how they presented the food on stage after writing my post about Bruce Bogtrotter’s Cake.

As I suspected the cake was not real, like in most theatre productions but what really caught my attention was how they presented the eating of the cake.

The theatre adaptation changes the scene and in the musical Trunchball does not know it is Bruce that has eaten her cake but only finds out through a ginormous burp he lets out whilst she is in the middle of accusing a different character. The "disgustingly chocolatey" burp is described as floating round the class room reaching each child’s nose and then finally Trunchball’s, who then realises who the cake thief is. The description of the burp and the character’s animated expressions of disgust shows the revolting side of food, how it is consumed and what bodily effects it can have which is not always shown in adult literature but can often be found in children’s books like Roald Dahl’s. In children’s stories it seems more acceptable as the description is funny for children as there’s something about the revolting that makes children squirm and giggle, which it certainly did at the Cambridge theatre! This shows how writer's connect food and the disgusting with entertainment, especially for child audiences.

If you want to see how this scene is acted for yourself, I recommend going to see it at the Cambridge theatre but you could also watch the scene in the film adaptation.