While the very good-looking student/shelf filler at Foyles bookshop, Adam, (played by John Black ) goes on a new date, the dye is cast – and not in a good way.
IT’S PRETTY clear early on in Natalie Audley’s multi-scene drama that Brett, the American advertising executive is far too career-centred and absorbed with his own greatness to have lasting relationships.
When their first date is at Brett’s very posh Chelsea pad, Adam encounters Henry – Brett’s live-in ex boyfriend. And so the complications start to develop in this taut, dark comedy of gay manners.
Adam, the honest, open, friendly gay boy clashes with Henry , played with all the sarcasm of a jilted lover by Tobias Clay. He is a bitter, sharp adversary and Adam is no match for him.
They argue while Brett, played by Jack Kristianson, is yet again out of the room on a business call, and when Brett returns , the trio turns the living room into a battle ground, with Adam failing to keep the peace between the two exs who release a long held-in anger, guilt and sorrow.
Quite sensibly Adam leaves, but inevitably soon after so does Henry , free of the ties that have bound him for too long to the selfish dependent Brett.
The finale, which comes very abruptly, is a Christmas scene, ending in happiness, which is as predictable as a turkey dinner.
Oh yes, and I forgot to mention, there’s a 4th character – Adam’s sister Lucy, with her new baby, a single mum dumped by her husband in her second trimester. I mention her now because she is entirely redundant as a character, adding nothing to the plot or the development of the play, and purely there to create dialogue with Adam to explain his situation. It would in my mind be stronger if Adam just narrated his situation direct to the audience – no sister necessary.
But ultimately it’s a well observed piece about gay domesticity and the lingering bitterness of failed relationships, tightly directed by Richard Evans-Thomas and staged by Unmasked Theatre, a company resident at Brighton’s Rialto Theatre.
Cooked runs at the Rialto theatre until June 3.
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Review by Brian Butler
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