The road of excess, William Blake believed, leads to the palace of wisdom. Or possibly to a plate of CBD-infused doughnuts with a chocolate dipping sauce, then an aerial pas de deux.

Earlier this summer I visited two high-end dinner theater productions, “The Devouring: A Marriage of Heaven and Hell” and “Midsummer: A Banquet.” Dinner and theater don’t necessarily go together: Fine dining is already performative, and good theater is satiating. Why complicate either? The idea of a “culinary theater,” an art that feeds our baser senses and fails to engage our intellect, made Bertolt Brecht apoplectic. Then again, he probably never tried the welcome cocktail at “The Devouring.”

In “Midsummer,” Third Rail Projects, an immersive theater outfit, and Food of Love Productions, a company that makes a picnic of pentameter, want you to follow Shakespeare’s young lovers into the Athenian woods. But they don’t want you to go in hungry. Or do they?

When you arrive at Café Fae, in an art nouveau space I remember as having been a brunch spot and a clothing store , a cast member clad in jodhpurs leads you to your table and presents you with various appetizers — crudités, spreads, a few cold cuts, a bag of bread rolls. (The plating leans toward Mason jars and gingham. Athens: so homespun.)