Review: “The Kitchen Plays” with Eden Theater Company
Screenshot from “Passion Project” by Cassandra Paras. Featuring: Larry Fleischman and Cassandra Paras
The Kitchen Plays are a collection of three plays, all set within some kind of kitchen and all dealing with some mental and emotional aspect of the pandemic. And while many may roll their eyes at plays directly addressing the Coronavirus (Lord knows we’ve seen enough of them), they utilize the situation in ways that feel unlike other “pandemic plays” that we’ve seen over this past year.
The first play, Passion Project by Cassandra Paras, was set in the back of a restaurant kitchen as actor, Sophie (Played by Paras) works on an audition with her friend, Larry, (Larry Fleichman) who works at the restaurant. Right off the bat, these two have incredible chemistry. The conversations feel voyeuristic, as we are watching everything take place through her laptop camera that she’s filming with. It’s really incredible that the playwright and actors can make us feel so much history between these two in such a short amount of time. Right from the first moment, you know that these two have been through a lot. They handle two pandemic stressors in this play, the actor’s stress of struggling to find work and the outside stress of working at a restaurant during this time. Both feel incredibly pressing and the tension and weight of these moments are felt right off the bat. The scene they were rehearsing also combined beautifully with the rest of the piece. Allowing a place for the tension of their lives to manifest and also a task that keeps getting interrupted by life, not unlike our current situation. This was a play that I could have watched a whole 90 minutes of, and was quite disappointed when it finished in around ten. BUT that’s just a testament to this first plays quality.
The second play, Ginger Bug by Jake Brasch, starts off in an unusual place. We see a woman (Madeline Barr) almost break down in tears and then call her friend, Perry (Played by Brasch), to only have the tears replaced with an over the top cooking show. Performing to no one, the woman and her best friend try to mask the pain of isolation with a cooking show to no one. The loneliness and anxiety that this quarantine has brought comes out strongly with this piece. The lovely performances by Barr and Brasch really bring home this sense of endlessness that we have all come to felt. Both balance the coping with silliness and the despair very well. Both want and need things from the other that they can’t provide and we see this come to a head by the end. Again the history of these characters was felt from the first line. This was also the only play where the actors were separated by Zoom and it captured the isolation perfectly; A very lovely piece of theatre, even if it was upsetting at times.
The final play, For the Family by Madison Harrison, centers around roommates living together in quarantine, one (Danielle Kogan) preparing to go out with friends and one (Owen Alleyne) is preparing a meal for his parents coming to visit. The meal is high stress and most of the play centers around the main character struggling to complete it while also dealing with the more emotional struggles of an ex-lover and his roommate who may or may not be taking a lighter approach to quarantine. Taking place almost entirely in the two roommate’s kitchen this play balances the physical stress of making a meal with the emotional stress of dealing with these two relationships very well. Though, this was the only play that felt like there was more left to be said. With a very surprising and satisfying reveal at the end of the play, it felt as though this was leading to more exploration. Perhaps this was a portion of a larger work but regardless, I was left wanting more.
Again, despite directly addressing the pandemic, The Kitchen Plays check all the emotional box’s that this year has brought and they do so honestly and without hesitation. I can’t quite put my finger on why these work so well and others don’t. Perhaps it’s the incredible performances, the great writing, or that many of the actors are actually in the same location. Or maybe it’s just the right time and we’ve all been able to reflect and feel these emotions a lot more lately. Whatever the case, The Kitchen Plays bring some high emotion theatre to Zoom and kitchen’s everywhere.
“The Kitchen Plays” are produced with Eden Theater Company. They feature “three new one-act plays set in the kitchen, written by emerging NYC playwrights and created specifically for Zoom.”
Final livestreamed performances will be on Friday
February 19 at 8pm, and Saturday, February 20 at 8pm. Tickets ($5+ suggested donation)
Get tickets at: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-kitchen-plays-tickets-
132670766835.
Ginger Bug
Written by Jake Brasch
Directed by Amber Calderon
Featuring Madeline Barr and Jake Brasch
Passion Project
Written by Cassandra Paras
Directed by Byron Anthony
Featuring Larry Fleischman and Cassandra Paras
For the Family
Written by Madison Harrison
Directed by Diane Davis
Featuring Owen Alleyne and Danielle Kogan