Food is not dinner theatre. For anyone who might’ve heard that La Boite’s production of Steve Rodgers’ play contains some hearty fare, you should know it is not Draculas or Dirty Dicks, there are no dancing waiters and you won’t be asked to do the ‘Time Warp’ for an extra glass of red. Instead, Food is the story of Elma (Kate Box) and Nancy (Emma Jackson), two sisters running a takeaway shop along a stretch of highway in regional Australia. Encouraged by her sister, Elma, a talented cook, decides to transform their chips-and-chiko roll joint into a soulful, modern restaurant. But after young Turkish traveller Hakan (Fayssal Bazzi) applies for a job at the restaurant, the secrets of Elma and Nancy’s shared past slowly unravel.
Box and Jackson are as believable as sisters as one could possibly hope. They share a stride, a way of communicating, and yet both nurse emotional scars, inflicted by their mother, by men, and the wounds establish an authentic distance between them. Jackson seems to drift through a permanent state of adolescent vulnerability, sharing with Elma that very human desire to be loved. Box is a stand-out and it’s testament to her performance that within the first ten minutes of the play, Elma seems so familiar – anxious, maternalistic, stern, but lovable. Fayssal Bazzi is an affable presence and a breath of fresh air, but the character of Hakan is about as deep as a koi pond and some of his dialogue wouldn’t seem entirely out of place in bawdy British sitcom Mind Your Language.
Though the play works best when it treads into darker territory, floating through flashbacks of family, sex and depression, subtlety doesn’t always work in its favour. Kate Champion is a talented dance-theatre director, but the incorporation of dance and movement into the play can seem too brief or too small to really deliver in a meaningful way. Lighting and Audio Visual Designer Martin Langthorne’s projections have the potential to enhance Anna Tregloan’s appealing ‘pots and pans’ set, however they are too-often difficult to see, somewhat obscured in the Roundhouse and competing with other onstage lighting.
To be clear, real, edible food does appear about halfway through and servings of wine, bread and minestrone soup are distributed amongst the seats in what resembles a chaotic dinner rush. The audience lapped it up but I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the mainstage equivalent of an improv troupe throwing Minties into the crowd to keep them content through the next 40 minutes. Still, it’s a buzz to see the play showcase the everyday theatricality of cooking – be it the sweeping of flour off a bench as it floats and settles like sawdust on the floor or the billowing steam out of a deep pot of soup, caught in the right light, evoking fire, warmth, passion.
With some solid lead performances and a tease of the tastebuds, Food has an awful lot to say and share, but sadly none of it stays with you any longer than a takeaway meal.
Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
La Boite presents, a Force Majeure and Belvoir co-production
Food
By Steve Rodgers
Directed by Kate Champion and Steve Rodgers
Set and Costume Designer: Anna Tregloan
Lighting and Audio Visual Designer: Martin Langthorne
Composer and Sound Designer: Ekrem Mülayim
Cast: Fayssal Bazzi, Kate Box and Emma Jackson
Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Grove
16 – April 27
