There’s not many Fringe shows where you’re provided with a meal, but What’s in the Kitchen aims to push the limits of the stage by engaging your tastebuds in the performance.
Armed with a paper bag (yes there is a vegetarian option, but vegans this show might not be for you) and a shot-sized complimentary drink, I sit down and the show begins.
The one-man-show, starring Brazilian actor Eduardo Estrela, is a homage to food, theatre, and life in Brazil. The performance is almost entirely in Portuguese, with subtitles projected above, only switching to English when Estrela is speaking directly to the audience.
He begins by instructing us to not open the bag until he rings the bell, (a la Pavlov’s dogs experiment) explaining that each “dish” is linked to a part of the performance. We then delve into the first of four segments, which each chart a different story of the significance of food in a person’s life, starting with Estrela’s own account of growing up in Sao Paulo and its plethora of cuisines, later resulting in him opening his own restaurant. He compares his love of theatre to his love of gastronomy, a theme which recurs throughout the show.
Estrela has a charismatic and confident stage presence and weaves the stories together with a visible love for food and for Brazil. Yet the periodic interruptions to the narrative where the audience rummages through their bags and tries the food, guided by Estrela’s halting English, feel like they subtract from the show rather than enhancing it.
Prepared by chef Alejandro Huerta, the food tastes good, but the portions are slightly too small and the set-up slightly too reminiscent of aeroplane food. This is the first time the show has premiered outside of Brazil, where it was previously performed in the MoDi Giardino restaurant. A restaurant likely suits the nature of this performance better – in the Bijou Tent it doesn’t quite deliver.
What’s in the Kitchen is a heartwarming account of the ways that food can bring people together and transform lives, but it is not yet quite the immersive culinary experience it hopes to be.
What’s in the Kitchen is running until 23 August (not 11 or 18) at Assembly Rooms, Bijou.
Tickets available here.
Image courtesy of Andy Phillipson, provided to The Student as press material.
