Cooking with Elvis - Review - Royalty Theatre

Cooking with Elvis
Royalty Theatre
28th Oct 2019

Written by Lee Hall
Directed by Corinne Kilvington
Cast: Beth McAneny, Corinne Kilvington, Wayne McCutcheon, Tom Kelly

Cooking with Elvis is not a play for the easily offended. A black comedy centred on the family of a former Elvis impersonator who has been paralysed in a car crash. Two years after the crash his wife and daughter are still trying to come to terms with the situation. Jill, the daughter, has developed an unhealthy obsession with food, while her mother has found solace in vodka and younger men. The two women clash constantly over their respective coping devices, and the latest love (lust) interest, the hapless Stuart, is caught in the middle.  Meanwhile the father sits in his wheelchair and dreams his own Elvis fantasies.

It's a strange mix of dark humour, farce and pathos as the actions of the love triangle of mother, daughter, and lover develops.  Emotions are charged, jealousy and guilt twist their relationships and tempers boil over. Roles are reversed as the child takes on the adult responsibilities of looking after the invalid and trying to control her mother's excesses. She finds comfort for herself in cooking, and eating. Faced with these two forceful women, Stuart never stands a chance. He gives in to his own temptations with drastic repercussions.

Wayne McCutcheon.  

Corinne Kilvington, Tom Kelly, Beth McAneny

Credit: Royalty Theatre

Beth McAneny is completely convincing as the tortured teen, desperately trying to shoulder responsibilities that are too great for someone her age. Tom Kelly plays a gauche, and naïve Stuart, manipulate by the two women in different ways - I feel he doesn't quite deserve the fate that befalls him. Corinne plays the vodka-soaked, man-eating mother well, but her curves don't quite match the view of her character as verging on anorexic, and a complete contrast to Gill - the foodie.

Wayne McCutcheon leaps into action as Elvis in the fantasy world inside his head, gyrating his hips and doing a passable impersonation of the King. The set and tech all work brilliantly to create the Las Vegas feel for the Elvis numbers, and watch out for the finale! 

The play is darkly funny, shocking (we were sandwiched between two groups of ladies old enough to be my granny which certainly added to the experience for the shock factor), and it has a killer twist ending. Don't go to see it if swearing and scenes of a sexual nature will make you blush, and definitely don't take your granny, no matter how big an Elvis fan she might be! Cooking with Elvis plays at the Royalty until 2nd Nov.

Denise Sparrowhawk