THE KITCHEN

Author: Arnold Wesker

Title and subtitle: The kitchen, a play in two parts with an interlude

Editorial and year / place of performance: Faber and Faber, 1959, at the Royal Court Theatre.

  “Dramatis personae”: in this play there are many characters. In total there are thirty, among them there are chefs or cooks, butchers, the proprietor… Some of them are: Max: he is a butcher in the restaurant. He is stout. He is fifty years old. Everyday he has a cigarette in his mouth. He is like Frank (the second chef), he drinks all day. Peter: Peter is German. He is twenty-three years old. He is boisterous, aggressive and quite merry. He has a forced laugh. Sometimes he speaks low, it seems that he is saying a secret. Alfredo: he is an old chef. He is sixty-five years old. He is medium height and strong. He is also hardworking. He does not help anybody in his job and also he does not accept help. Raymond and Paul: Paul is a young boy. He is a Jew. He is a pastrycook in the restaurant like Raymond. Paul is suave. Raymond is an Italian. He is emotional. Both are hardworking. Mr. Marango: he is the restaurant’s proprietor.  He is sixty-five years old. He is stout. He looks like an old man, he has his grey hair.

  Plot: This play is about one day of work in a restaurant, its name is Tivoli.  The workers are of different nationalities, German, Italian, Jew, English… They have a tiring life, they have to do everything that is done in a restaurant, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning everything… although they have a short time to speak with each other and they also established relationships. Like other restaurants, there are discussions and the characters talk about whatever such as their dreams, Raymond wants to stay with a different woman each night, Hans wants to be a millionaire; they also talk about their lives, Peter has a lover, Monique then she is pregnant; their work, the difficulties that they have when somebody does not go to work, they speak about the boss, if  it is good to serve food that is not in well conditions, when somebody starts a new job…  some   confrontations are when Peter gave food to a wanderer and then he was told off and when Peter hits  his partner at work…

  Space and time: the action takes place in a restaurant so we can say that the space is single and it is closed. And the action occurs for one day. The first act is in the morning, the second is at night and the interlude is the rest that they have.

  The language that Wesker used in his play is colloquial. There are some swearwords and idioms. The play is written in prose.

Other aspects: we can see that in this play there are many characters, it supposes that the performance cost much money so we can say that it has a high cost (economic aspect) and also since the space is a restaurant to performance I think that it is not easy to show us (technician aspect).

In my opinion, I think that Arnold shows us the reality of this age and how was one day working in a restaurant. His play has a certain humor so it is funny however, it is very difficult to understand if you do not know German since one character speaks in German, Hans.