Cooking With Elvis

Cooking with Elvis is a raucous, fast-paced dark comedy by Lee Hall, the ingenious Northern playwright, who penned the wonderful Billy Elliot.

Originally performed in Edinburgh in 1999 and 2000, before transferring to London’s West End, the play was hugely popular with audiences at the time. Now in 2009, only a few weeks before the Edinburgh Festival, the Tron Theatre Company is staging its own adaptation of this work. With the official verdict in, it is safe to say that the show is as popular as ever. Tonight’s sold out theatre was packed with ardent fans, hurling unrelenting laughter to a point that was almost disconcerting (but I’ll come back to that one later).

Essentially, the narrative is encapsulated by the troubled relationship between a teenage girl, Jill (who also happens to be obsessed with creating gastronomic delights), and her narcissistic, nymphomaniac, alcoholic of a mother, sound like fun? Well, it probably shouldn’t be, but Hall has managed to lace this dark story, which I also might add, includes a splash of statutory rape as well, with unyielding comic dialogue. This isn’t to mention, the series of random performances by Jill’s father, who just so happens to be a crippled Elvis impersonator!

The problem with these comic interludes is that they almost seem to exist outwith the story. This isn’t to say that they aren’t hilarious. For instance, when the pubescent Jill engages in an explicit sexual act with her mother’s 29-year-old boyfriend, the sight of her dad, dancing and singing around the stage in full Elvis attire, serves as an outrageously funny counterpoint. But, it is these very instances that are the most polemical. It seems to me that despite the overtly dark themes of the piece, the audience are only here because they want to unwind, and sing along to Elvis tunes. By all means, this is their right, but I was completely shocked to find the audience still in fits of hysterical frenzy, when the young Jill was attempting to commit suicide.

It is difficult to assign blame here, especially since I did not manage to see the original production, but it should go without saying that both the writer, and show producers should have handled their subject matter with a little more delicacy. Certainly, the fact that the scene that follows Jill’s attempted suicide, involves an irreverent (and might I add, unconnected) Elvis performance is completely disconcerting. Traditionally, great dark comedies thrive because they are subversive, i.e. able to lace humour with loaded narrative subtext. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case here.

Still, I feel that I have been overtly negative, which isn’t means my intention. The casting here is superb, and the performances by the theatre company are near perfect. Also worth considerable note is the phenomenal set design, which is unlike anything I have seen in a theatre of this size. In the end, whatever my scepticism may be, it is safe to say that Cooking with Elvis is a popular hit with viewers, and that it will continue to delight its demographic in the nights to come.

– Omar Kholeif