Stuart Riley Jones Mam Tracy Whitwell Dad/Elvis Joe Caffrey
Cooking with Elvis
is a 15 year old play about a dysfunctional mother and daughter who are coming
to terms with their father/husband’s accident which has made him paralysed. The
play is written by Lee Hall also wrote the famous Billy Elliott. The daughter
(Victoria Bewick) cannot stop eating and cooking after her father’s accident
and her mother has become a raging man-eating alcoholic to deal with her
stress. The final character, Stewart,
plays the mother’s lover who moves in and causes havoc throughout the two hour
long play!
The performance is described as a “dark comedy” but i wasn't
expecting it to be as dark as it
actually was. It is full with jokes about the disabled, cannibalism and statutory rape! All things that in a
normal day-to-day basis would definitely not be funny, but somehow it works in Cooking With Elvis; the play somehow
takes away the seriousness of these issues by adding light-hearted comedy to it
and amazingly the audience forgets the actual content and thoroughly laughs out
loud. Amazing. I can imagine this would not be to everybody’s taste, especially
for people with personal issues with the content, but for the majority this
wouldn't be a problem and in no way does it pick or make fun off anybody.
Elvis fans eat your heart out! Joe Caffrey who plays the
disabled Elvis impersonator performs an array of Elvis Presley songs throughout
accompanied by the cast’s dancing. Not being an Elvis fan, I found myself
enjoying the performances a lot so I can imagine someone who is a hardcore
Elvis fan would be over the moon.
All in all, a marvellous play with full on entertainment and
I’d just like to praise Live Theatre on their Cooking With Elvis programmes which are set out like a menu and
actually include a seafood gumbo recipe – very interesting. Cooking with Elvis has a devilishly dark
ending and I would recommend this for everyone! Except children, for obvious
reasons.
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