Caroline’s Kitchen – Review
Playwright Torben Betts has come up with a new recipe for his haute cuisine comedy, Caroline’s Kitchen, tinkering with the ingredients to create a new dish about depression and discontent in the home of a masterchef.
But does it pass the taste test? Formerly called Monogamy, Caroline’s Kitchen opened at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate last night and it’s a slow boiler that takes a while to get going, but eventually leaves the audience fairly replete.
It’s rare that a writer has another crack at his work. Once complete a play is usually locked down and considered finished.
But last year, after Monogamy toured the UK and had a run in London, Betts returned to it and, in his words, “improved the play a little”.
Caroline’s Kitchen is set in the heart of a multi-million pound North London home where TV chef, Caroline Mortimer films her celebrity-stuffed show.
She’s the darling of the cookery circuit, loved and adored by millions. Caroline seemingly has the perfect life, an idyllic family, a gorgeous home and a successful career.
But the veneer is wafer thin. As we’ve all seen, with a succession of well-known names dragged through the national media, there’s no such thing as perfection.
Life in Chez Mortimer is about to combust. The chef is frequently pickled; a national paper is to print embarrassing photos of her in her cups; her privileged, Cambridge-educated son, plans to drop a bombshell or two; her husband is suffering a mid-life crisis and she’s screwing the handyman.
Caroline Langrishe, no stranger to comedy, works hard to invest Caroline Mortimer with some humanity but is hampered by stodgy dialogue.
The laughs don’t really come until the arrival of her husband, Mike (Aden Gillett).
Gillett’s homophobic, bi-polar banker is overpowering but his huge personality brings the production to life.
The problem with Caroline’s Kitchen, and Monogamy, is that all of its characters are monstrously appalling. They are awful and we really can’t find a soupçon of sympathy for any of them.
Each and every one of them has “issues”. They’re depressed, despondent and desperately unhappy but why should we care?
Worse, son Leo’s “bombshell” is so passé. It would have been twee more than 20 years ago but in a nice middle-class, North London, household it’s almost de rigueur today.
It certainly wouldn’t provoke the outrage that it does (from a dinosaur like Mike) while his mother’s shocking comments are deeply offensive in this day and age.
There are lines, particularly from Mike, that hit home to theatre-goers of a certain age but, generally, the laughs are few and far between.
Still not a great comedy but one which is lifted by Gillett’s rousing turn.
Caroline’s Kitchen runs on the Royal stage until Saturday, February 16.
The tour continues to:
Everyman Theatre, Liverpool (Feb 19 – 23); Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham (Feb 25 – March 2); Norwich Theatre Royal ( March 6 – 9); Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne ( March 12 – 16); Theatre Royal Bath (March 25 – 30); Connaught Theatre, Worthing (April 3 – 6) and Mercury Theatre, Colchester (April 9 – 13).
Caroline's Kitchen
- Caroline's Kitchen
Summary
Aden Gillett is cooking on gas in Torben Betts’s Caroline’s Kitchen, but the comedy still struggles for laughs despite improvements from its author.
Just seen this play at the mercury theatre in Colchester. I agree it was a little slow to get going and the second half was much funnier than the first. For me the whole show was stepped up a gear when Aden Gillet as the father came on stage. He was the funniest thing in the show and certainly saved the day. All in all I enjoyed it.
I whole-heartedly agree with these comments. Just seen the performance at the Mercury in Colchester…well, I say ‘seen’ but we left at half time . As a seasoned theatre- goer, I have only done that once before in my life.
What a shame! The plot and script was dull, the actors shouted throughout and were totally unconvincing as charaters. Poor diction, tired themes and dated attitudes all compounded to make this a dismal experience. The publicity for this play completely overated it…I didnt believe I was watching the same play. We went to the show with friends and none of us wanted to sit out the second half.
My wife and I saw this play in Bath last week. She “quite” enjoyed it; I agree with other reviews here. At the interval I wondered what it was all about and where it was going.
I got bored in the second act and was eagerly waiting for the end. They really were an extremely angry and uninteresting set of characters. There was too much shouting and little enjoyment or comedy. I found little to laugh at and was surprised some others seemed to find it funny.
Perhaps some of the humorous lines were lost by the constant shouting and the poor articulation of Jasmyn Banks as Amanda. It was difficult to hear her when up stage or not facing the audience. And I got very irritated trying to listen in Act 2 above the over-loud continuous rain sound effect.
The cast, especially Caroline Langrishe and Aden Gillett, worked hard to get the best out of a poor and dated script. Not for me I’m afraid. Very disappointed.
Totally agree with this piece’s author, Anne Cox – this was a farce one would expect from no later than the 80s. Forget political correctness. This was full of out and out tired tropes regarding sexuality, gender, race and class. The more we reflected on this play the crosser we were for having wasted the money and time. (Wish we’d stayed in the restaurant next door!)
Shame on the playwright for creating something irretrievably homophobic, mysoginistic, classist, Christiaphobic and racist. As others have said, the main characters were variously so unattractive that aside from the poor working-class couple (just to reinforce they were they were northern) and exasperated Leo they were entirely irredeemable.
Not so sure Islamophobic humour would’ve gone down quite so well as Christiaphobic insults are allowed to. Interesting that, isn’t it?
Frankly I’m disappointed this got commissioned and surprised the actors wanted to be ambassadors for such a repugnant piece of theatre.
We saw this play tonight at the Theatre Royal Bath, yes it was slow to get started but all the actors did a great job and it turned out to be good entertainment and the second half got some good laughs. Very Surrey!
Exactly why is this play supposed to be funny? The actors made a reasonable attempt, but the play is unfunny beyond any redemption. The son turns out to be gay – gosh. Mum has been having an affair with the builder – wow. All we really needed was Alfred Garnett and … you guessed it … in he walks as Dad half way through.
Maybe they could get the set to fall down or catch fire – oh … it does.
Memo to theatre managers – never, ever book this lot again.
I agree with Clare Wiseman, I was bored , When ‘Mike’ shouted you could not hear what he was saying, nor could you hear the words spoken by ‘Amanda” who spoke with a shrill gabbled voice.
The swearing seemed to have no reason and was put in just for shock value, which did not work in 2019.
I honestly think that it was the worse play that I have ever seen, and I have seen many throughout my life. Avoid.
I totally agree with your review and I wish I had read it before I spent £25 on a ticket for the performance at the Everyman Cheltenham today. The loud overly theatrical voices were distracting, the performances were hysterical, neurotic and portrayed disappointingly 1970’s attitudes to sexuality. The characters relationships were not believable, and there was unnecessary swearing. I was shocked that some people laughed at a few things, but they were of an older generation. Nursing home fair. Avoid.