Review by Jo Tomalin
www.ForAllEvents.com

Chef – is Brilliant!

***** (5/5 stars)

Chef is a theatrical monologue written by award winning poet Sabrina Mahfouz and vibrantly performed by Jade Anouka, about an haute cuisine chef who ends up as a convicted inmate running a prison kitchen. Anouka’s chef character is elegant and passionate gushing forth with stories flowing from the heart.

Staged in the curved metal dome of Underbelly’s Big Belly theatre and well directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward, the set comprises a shiny metal kitchen table, several utensils and a whiteboard. Anouka wears a chef’s jacket, a black and white scarf on her head, and grey just below the knee length trousers.

Mahfouz’s language is poetic and the layers are fascinating as she leads us through each chapter of a cook-book about the art of cooking peppered with juicy life stories. Anouka writes several intriguing headings on the whiteboard, such as…The Perfect Peach…and Coconut Curried Tofu then tells us about different eras of her life – her philosophy of the perfect peach, her loves, distrust, hopes and dreams.

The combination of Anouka’s earnest, gutsy, alive and on point physical performance as the chef and the beautifully fluid crafting by Mahfouz makes this an outstanding performance piece. Satisfying in every way, this one-hour monologue is very entertaining and moving, going deep into a raw emotional core, captivating the audience.

Information and Tickets:

Location: Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)
Box Office: 0844 545 8252
More Info/Tickets: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/chef
Underbelly: http://www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk

Jo Tomalin, Ph.D. reviews Dance, Theatre & Physical Theatre Performances
More Reviews by Jo Tomalin
TWITTER @JoTomalin
www.forallevents.com  Arts & Travel Reviews