Capitol Riverfront’s Sensorium pairs performance and cuisine

Rirkrit Tiravanija started a revolution within New York’s contemporary art scene 21 years ago by cooking Pad Thai for audiences at the Paula Allen Gallery.

The artist broke convention by introducing the mundane but alluring art of stir-fry into a monastic gallery space — all in pursuit of multi-sensory experience and direct participation.

{mosads}That revolution has finally taken hold in Washington.

On D.C.’s Southeast riverfront, chef Byron Brown has sought to merge spectacular visual art with fine dining. The result is Sensorium, a two-and-a-half-hour dining experience in a geodesic tent that feels like a circus performance, complete with a mustachioed impresario in a top hat.

Brown, the executive producer of the show, started Artisa Kitchens D.C. supper club in January 2010 to throw dinner parties in the city’s art galleries, giving guests the chance to fill their bellies and satisfy their yen for conceptual art set off by white walls.

Sensorium, however, plunges the audience into a swirling, colorful and musical atmosphere. With décor that’s part spaceship, part submarine, diners feel many miles away from 14th Street or Georgetown.

The experience starts with sangria cocktails served in the draped tunnel leading to the dining dome. It’s a good chance to meet the other guests and play with the Scoposcope, a trippy light installation that displays different geometric patterns on a field of miniature acrylic spheres.

Guests are then led within and seated at communal tables arranged around the performing space, complete with a mini-stage, backdrop and stage lights.

The master of ceremonies is the talented David London. Dressed as a circus ringmaster from a 1920s dystopian novel, he announces, “We’re here for one reason and one reason only: to awaken the senses.”

And awaken the senses he does, helped by a talented cast of performers-turned-food servers.

The stars of the show are Melissa Krodman and Anthony Wills Jr. At one moment they’re serving a tangy beet gazpacho with goat cheese; the next they’re dressed as hepcats banging on a bongo drum and riffing about their mood for something “smooth and spicy.”

A succulent oyster dish is later served in the midst of a bath of shimmering light, conjuring lapping waves, while the actors float mesmerizing puppets of fish around the dinning room.

The theater doesn’t have a strong unifying narrative or plot; it aims for surprise and whimsy instead.

When the chef serves a delicious morsel of braised pork belly nestled on a dollhouse chair, you finally stop trying to figure out what it means and settle for enjoying the eccentric beauty of the evening.

Dinner performances are staged twice an evening Tuesday through Sunday through the end of May on the east lawn at Yards Park on the Capitol Riverfront. More information can be found at www.sensoriumdc.com.