The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Chef at the Soho

Chef at the Soho | Theatre review
18 June 2015
Alex Finch
Avatar
Alex Finch
18 June 2015

Much modern theatre seems to be based on how naturally a playwright and their actors can flit between one mood and another. The more drastic the juxtaposition and the smoother the transition, the more entertaining the play. Sabrina Mahfouz’s Chef demonstrates magnificently how this technique can be used not only for comic effect, but to create intense emotional empathy and drama.chef

A one-woman show, this play features a chef who, in one blazing monologue, charts her story from the estate to Michelin star to prison. There’s suicide, murder, adultery, incest – essentially, there’s enough meat in her tale to serve a feast, and it might all be a bit stomach-churning if actor Jade Anouka wasn’t on hand to cut it up and deliver it to us in a snappy yet seamless, frivolous yet deeply affecting way.

Anouka shows incredible dexterity in her performance range. Her glittering eyes dance between fear, joy, sobriety and playfulness in the blink of an eye, and even in that blink you feel you miss a trick. Her presence on stage doesn’t demand attention, instead it lures the audience in until you find you’re grimacing at the grimy bits and smiling in sync with the smiley bits without even realising. Buzzing with energy from the get go, it naturally took Anouka a minute or two to get into her stride and to gain an affiliation with the audience, but her fearless performance and unabashed cheekiness soon had the heart warmed right through. The skill with which she controlled the constant blasts of energy and emotion was absolutely thrilling to behold.

Anouka’s agility was the perfect complement to Mahfouz’s rich, lyrical writing. Poetic diction blends effortlessly with colloquial to create that all-important contrast between pain and solidity, drama and the quotidian. Similes are shot out like crossword clues, tricky but indelibly rewarding.

The combined skill of Mahfouz’s writing and Anouka’s performing assimilates the unbelievable into something painfully real and tangible. Chef offers a gripping scrutiny of the angry and lonely human condition, but more touching than the tales told is the stolid, powerful young woman still standing at the end.

★★★★★

Alex Finch

Chef is on at the Soho Theatre until 4th July 2015, for further information or to book visit here.

Related Itemschefsoho theatre

More in Theatre

Chiswick Playhouse Recharged: An interview with producer Wayne Glover-Stuart

Selina Begum
Read More

Anthropocene: The Human Era at Oxford Playhouse Online

★★★★★
Francis Nash
Read More

The Motherhood Project: An interview with creator and curator Katherine Kotz

Ezelle Alblas
Read More

The Secret Connection – Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Cruise – Online

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

A Splinter of Ice at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre Online

★★★★★
Francis Nash
Read More

Distance Remaining – Online

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Doppler: Grid Iron theatre company document the story so far

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Disenchanted Online

★★★★★
Regan Harle
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Alex Finch

Chef

★★★★★

Dates

15th June - 4th July 2015

Price

£12-£14

Links & directions

WebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Cruise – Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Weezer with the LA Philharmonic and YOLA at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Birdy at Wilton’s Music Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • A Splinter of Ice at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Chiswick Playhouse Recharged: An interview with producer Wayne Glover-Stuart
    Theatre
  • Anthropocene: The Human Era at Oxford Playhouse Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Race to Save the World
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Motherhood Project: An interview with creator and curator Katherine Kotz
    Theatre
  • The Mitchells vs the Machines
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • 50 Next unveils the new generation of food industry pioneers
    Food & Drinks
  • Arlo the Alligator Boy
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Campfire in Kings Cross: Two Tribes deliver everything you’ve been missing with a night of beer, BBQ and live music
    Food & Drinks
  • Live from the Barbican: Moses Boyd
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Incubus at the Hammersmith Apollo | Live review
An Audience with Jimmy Savile at the Park | Theatre review