Cooking Ghosts at Camden People’s Theatre

Cooking Ghosts is a theatrical delight of art, film and performance. An outstanding production it is one of the few examples of a recent amalgamation of cross-disciplinary arts that has not been breached by mundane, pretentious, predictable and depersonalised themes. Award winning theatre company Beady Eye bring a spectacular sense of humanity to their show and make every moment utterly captivating.

Cooking Ghosts is the story of three children whose mother chooses to take her own life, it is a symphony of memories, pain, reflection and hope. Such a serious story line would imply that you should expect to be completely stone-faced throughout, but this is far from the case.

The play opens as if it were a film, showing a carefully choreographed set of references of a past filmed live and streamed on screen. This montage intrigues, you immediately enter someone else’s life, someone else’s entire world and set of memories. This shifts at a fast pace, into a high-energy performance of character introduction, and this is where the laughter begins. Almost as if you were watching stand-up comedy the performance is quite literally a hilarious continuum of realistic scenarios and anecdotes.

The three sisters play out their life story in a fast-paced and energetic narrative that flits from one memory to another. Almost without the audience being able to realise the play has captured the entirety of their family dynamic and events both influential to the storyline but also ones essential to creating a whole and rounded sense of character that is easy to forget when fabricating a complete story. This play will make you laugh so much it hurts, it will make you cry, it will make you reminisce and it will make you believe its truth. This does not happen often, especially not as well as it is done in this instance by the deeply committal performers.

Artistic Director, Kristin Fredricksson gives a fantastic performance full of energy, emotion and enthusiasm the passion is clear to see. Performing alongside Georgina Roberts, Seiriol Davies and technical director Helen Mugridge the quality of acting is superb. The score and video incorporated into the performance is perfectly matched to create a sophisticated, accomplished, original and interesting whole. The passion and dedication of all involved is easily spotted. As if all that was not enough the performance also features specially crafted puppets and props that all feed into the stunning aesthetic making the show a feast for the eyes.

The Camden People’s Theatre is an intimate venue full of quirky decor that boasts a fantastic atmosphere whether you are glued to a performance or just having a drink with friends. Perfect for this kind of theatre the venue has bags of personality and friendly staff leaving you relaxed and ready to soak up all manner of exciting performances. Located a couple of minutes walk from Warren Street Station the theatre’s small capacity and close audience/performance proximity allows for highly engaging shows.

Words are not enough to explain how wonderful this production is, you have to see it for yourselves.

Ruth Page

Cooking Ghosts is at the Camden People’s Theatre until 17^th November 2012. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.