Southwark Premieres Like Water Stage Adaptation

Laura Esquivel’s best-selling Mexican novel and film Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) hits UK stages next month. The adaptation has its London premiere at Southwark Playhouse, where it runs from 13 to 31 May 2008 as part of a seven-week tour.

Set against the backdrop of revolutionary Mexico in 1910, Like Water for Chocolate centres on the forbidden relationship between Tita and Pedro. Tita is forbidden to marry because family tradition ordains that, as the youngest daughter, she must care for her mother until death. Forced to watch her sister marry her one true love, Pedro, she cooks intoxicating and passionate dishes to mend her broken heart.

Como Agua Para Chocolate was Esquivel’s first novel. Since its publication in 1989, it has become an international bestseller, translated into more than 30 languages. Esquivel also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning 1993 Mexican film of the same title.

Linda McLean’s 2006 stage adaptation was written for French company Theatre Sans Frontieres, which specialises in producing and touring works by world authors performed in their original languages. Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) is performed in Spanish.

John Cobb directs an international cast led by Alejandra Ambrosi and Jeronimo Best as Tita and Pedro. The production is designed by Neil Murray, with lighting by Mark Pritchard and original music by Iain Johnstone.

– by Terri Paddock