The man who ate the popomack: A tragi-comedy of love in four acts

"The man who ate the popomack" by W. J. Turner is a tragi-comic play written in the early 20th century. It probes love, art, and perception through Lord Belvoir’s passionate courtship of Muriel Raub, her powerful father Sir Solomon, the flamboyant antiquarian Sir Philo Phaoron, and a legendary fruit—the popomack—whose exquisite taste and atrocious smell unsettle society and self. The action blends reality with dream, memory, and imagination as desire meets the limits of the senses.

The opening of the play moves from a London gallery’s debates on modern art to Belvoir and Muriel’s first intense encounter, sealed by his purchase of a haunting landscape. At a dinner in her father’s house, a Chinese reverie introduces the fabled popomack; when it is finally cut, its divine flavor and unbearable stench divide the company—Belvoir and Sir Philo relish it while others recoil. Three months later Belvoir carries the popomack’s odor permanently; he refuses to live as a “case,” clashes with friends, rejects cures, and faces pressure to end his engagement, even as Muriel tries to be brave and faints in his arms. The start of the final act frames his fate as a mystery relived in his unchanged rooms: two observers speak of his suicide, Belvoir is seen arranging a call with Muriel and awaiting news, and a bearded visitor, Captain Anthony, arrives in answer to an advertisement seeking another popomack.