A tale of mastery and one-upmanship

ROBYN SASSEN

The role of senior French cook Nicole in this deliciously horrifying production, could have been written just for Patricia Boyer. Almost sexless in her embodiment of this 19^th century domestic, she dominates the stage and makes you quiver in your seat. She’s unequivocally the magic ingredient in this kitchen.

The viciousness and cruelty central to this tale of domestic domination and culinary bullying, is comparable to the twisted relationship between elderly sisters in the Robert Aldritch 1962 horror film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, which featured Bette Davis opposite Joan Crawford.

In the bowels of the kitchen of a wealthy French residence – which specialises in provincial cuisine delicacies that entail gestures like castrating crabs, preserving blood and chopping entrails – we are introduced to Elisa (Lurdes Laice).

She’s young. She’s of colour. She’s pretty. She’s green. And she’s been appointed as a leave substitute for Nicole – a towering monument of a woman who wields her big meat cleavers with terrifying aplomb, not unlike the scariness of her glances.

Nicole is tasked to train Elisa in the skill and craft, tricks and mysteries of this kitchen. It’s a tale of mastery as it is about one-upmanship, with a sinister greedy plot to destroy others’ happiness.

Crafted by Lucia Laragione (writer) and Princess Zinzi Mhlongo (director), it features a set by Nolunthando Lobese and lighting design by Mandla Mtshali, a creative team which succeed in suggesting unspeakable horror that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Where it fails is in the obviously faux elements, kowtowing to the concept that we are, after all, in a theatre and nothing is real. Suggestion across the board would have been far scarier, subtler and more successful.

Like Dickens’ Miss Havisham, or the mother in Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, the character of Nicole is completely dark. She’s performed with manic malicious detail; Boyer yields a creature utterly magnetic: it is with great physical effort that you pull your focus from Boyer at any given moment in the play, even if she is just glaring from offstage.

Cooking with Elisa is a play where your attention is not allowed to wander an inch. Featuring several chapters which are distinguished with whimsical lighting variations and fabulous choreography, it addresses the kitchen as a place of great cruelty, creativity and innovation, but also offer a glimpse of one of South Africa’s finest contemporary actresses at her best. Boyer’s performances reek of detailed authenticity.

* A version of this review appeared in Cue newspaper, during the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. The play enjoys a brief season at Auto and General Theatre on the Square, as part of the Argentinean Cultural Festival in South Africa this week, featuring everything from photography to tango, the first of its kind in SA. www.facebook.com/argcw or www.embassyofargentina.co.za