The Arcola Theatre hosts the world premiere of the Actors East company’s opening montage, written in a joined effort between its director and performer. Guillermo Nazara shares his views on the show, to let us know if this simmering pie of humour and grief is full of beans.
“There is no sincerer love than the love of food”. Except, perhaps, for the love towards those who made it. It may sound childish, but that’s actually how the purest emotions works. And the truth is that we all have a dish or two treasured in our hearts. A melange of memories that relive inside us through one single bite – filling us with the rush and warmth of those simpler times we often go back to in search for our own peace. A taste of joy and sweetness, which sometimes can turn sour.
Past and future collide in their fight for dominance throughout James Alexandrou’s new play, Casserole. Celebrating its world premiere at the Arcola Theatre last week (an event which also marked the show’s company’s, Actors East Theatre, first-ever production), the story focuses on a burnt-out couple, Dom and Kate, struggling to make their relationship work. But things will become even more bitter upon finding a harrowing secret: Dom has eaten Kate’s frozen pottage (don’t make it sound dirtier than the literal thing already is).
Not too obvious a reason to start a conflict (though blatantly intentional, in any case), things are soon to take a darker turn, as the curtain is pulled to reveal a more distressing picture made of rancor and remorse towards each other. Haunted by the fact that she never got to say her final goodbye to her mother, Kate had kept that plate as a last memento – now shredded into pieces by her boyfriend’s clumsy mistake. But such a casual error may have actually been an epiphany. There’s change to be made. And paths to be taken. Perhaps, moving in a separate direction.
Parting from an interesting concept, which at the same time mirrors classic masterpieces like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Casserole introduces us to a compelling premise embellished through an amusing and opposite style. It’s absurd in its form, but deep and thoughtful in its foundation. All of the themes it endeavours to explore are highly universal: the strings that bind us to a reality that no longer exists, but we struggle to sever; the need for acknowledgment from the people we build our happiness on; and the frustration upon not being rewarded for the sacrifices we believe to have done. The effort to make it profound and meaningful is more than palpable. But sadly, it never manages to come through.
With hardly one hour of delivery for what should have been a rather more complex evolution for the characters, the piece rushes the action excessively fast – thus, making it unapproachable to the viewer. Though presented as a semi-farcical view on the fears and insecurities we carry in our own personal baggage, the arc lacks sufficient substance to make it neither believable or engaging in spite of its extreme tone. Instead, we’re faced with an underdeveloped recount which, despite shedding a bit of light on some transcendent matters, fails, most unfortunately, to achieve its goal at mimicking their nature – all in all, feeling too shallow and repeatedly cliched.
Starring Dominic Morgan and Kate Kelly Flood, the performances manage to endow their roles with some insightfulness, but wistfully, they are frequently flawed by what appears to be a lack of background in their portrayals. Also serving as co-authors for the play (the result of several improvisation workshops), the construction behind their renditions seems to be blurred – not providing us with enough strokes of detail to make make them, firstly, unique, and above all, truthful.
Rising from an inviting starting point, Casserole brings out the appetite with its germinal idea, but stews up in its own juice by drawing out the drama without giving too much sense to its presence. A more refined and subtle preparation is the key ingredient to make its desiredly roast-style humour finally pop, pouring more zest and scent to what’s so far an undercooked product. It’s meant to be crude and it’s designed to feel unpleasant to some extent. But for an audience to sink their teeth into some new dough, even the most unpalatable situations need to be served in a digestive way.
All pictures credit to Kit Mackenzie.
Casserole plays at London’s Arcola Theatre’s Studio 2 until 30 March. Tickets are available on the following link.