Arnold Wesker's perennially popular play The Kitchen will be revived at the National Theatre in October 2011. Set in the basement kitchen of a large restaurant, thirty chefs, waitresses, and kitchen porters, slowly begin the day preparing to serve lunch. The central story tells of a frustrated love affair between a high-spirited, young, German chef, Peter, and a married English waitress, Monique.
Press Comment:
“Flashing, illuminating, moving, funny, passionate, authentic…” - Bernard Levin, Daily Express
“Achieves something that few playwrights have ever attempted; it dramatizes work… rising at the end of the first half to a climactic lunch-hour frenzy that is the fullest theatrical expression I have ever seen of the laws of supply and demand.” - Kenneth Tynan, The Observer
"... a masterpiece of construction. This National revival confirms its exhilarating theatrical cosmopolitanism as well as its historical poignancy and significance." - 4* The Independent
"[Wesker] is a dramatist of heart and humanity... a drama of daring ambition and technical invention [that] grips throughout." 4*, The Telegraph
"The beauty of the play is that the action stems from the rhythms of work yet behind the frenzy lurks an awareness of life's unrealised potential." 3* Stars The Guardian
"Wesker’s strength is his ear for the cadences of ordinary life and a political passion for those who lead it… with wit and energy it keeps you gasping." – The Times
"Wesker presents us with a fascinating microcosm of the melting-pot of post-war London… [and] the tyranny of the working world" – Evening Standard
"Anyone who has worked in a restaurant knows the sort of staff they can attract: drinkers, fighters, slackers, sex maniacs. That is the brilliance of Sir Arnold Wesker’s play" – Daily Mail
"A fascinating portrait of post-war, pre-pill Britain’s working class… Look behind the counter at McDonald’s 50 years on and, but for the hairnets and the fags, little has changed." – Mail on Sunday
Male Cast:
18+
Female Cast:
12
Published:
Aug 2011
Binding:
PaperBack
Page extent:
96
ISBN: 9781849430272
£9.99
