The Kitchen Sink

Synopsis

This is a very good place to come from. Cos it's knackered and funny and it's falling in the sea... But it's not a good place to end up. Things aren't going to plan for one family in Withernsea. Pieces are falling off Martin's milk float as quickly as he's losing customers and something's up with Kath's kitchen sink. Billy is pinning his hopes of a place at art college on a revealing portrait of Dolly Parton, whilst Sophie's dreams of becoming a Jiu-Jitsu teacher might be disappearing down the plug hole. And amid the dreaming, dramas and dirty dishes, something has to give. But will it be Kath or the kitchen sink?

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 24 November 2011

The Bush may have moved round the corner to its new home on the Uxbridge Road, but they’ve not lost the knack of finding typical Bush new plays. Tom Wells’ slight but appealing new domestic comedy is just the job: and they’ve even boxed in the big new space to make it look like a slightly less cramped version of the old theatre.

You know where you are when young Billy, hoping to go to art college, flaunts his new portrait of Dolly Parton, and asks his mum: “What d’you think about the nipples?” Mum’s a dinner lady, dad’s a milkman and sister’s taking ju-jitsu lessons.

But things aren’t going to plan. There are funny smells in the sink, dad’s milk float is on its last legs, sister Sophie is not getting on brilliantly with the lessons, or her boyfriend Pete the plumber, and Billy’s going to London. They’re even selling hummus in Tesco’s.

Where are we, exactly? Th...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 21 December 2011:

My first trip to the terrific new home for the Bush Theatre proved to be as enjoyable as any I have made this year. Tom Wells' story of a Humberside family struggling with financial pressures and hopeless employment prospects could be depressing and cliched but Wells avoids those traps and it's also frequently very funny indeed and shot through with optimism about the essential decency of the five characters. It's also probably the first time that Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You has been used as an elegy for a milk float. The cst ensure you really care about these people with Lisa Palfrey outstanding as the matriarch trying to keep it all together. It still didn't convince me that an in-the-round staging can be totally effective but The Kitchen Sink is in the top two or three new plays of this year. It may be a bit too sentimental for some but Wells is clearly a name to look out for....

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