The Kitchen (Oberon Modern Plays)

The Kitchen (Oberon Modern Plays)

by Arnold Wesker (Author)

Synopsis

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.

$21.19

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 96
Publisher: Oberon Modern Plays
Published: 31 Aug 2011

ISBN 10: 1849430276
ISBN 13: 9781849430272

Media Reviews
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
Author Bio
ARNOLD WESKER F.R.S.L was knighted in 2006 for 'services to drama'. He has written over forty-three plays, two opera libretti, various mechanical adaptations; four volumes of short stories, a children's book, and a novel; two volumes of essays, an autobiography, a diary, and a book on journalism; and recently his first volume of poetry. His plays have been produced in cities from Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo, from Paris to Moscow, from Montreal to Zurich, and The Kitchen - his most performed play has been performed yearly somewhere or other around the world for the last fifty years, and is due for revival by The National Theatre in 2011.