Subject: TEATRO INGLÉS S. XIX Y XX
Code: 14227 group: B
NPA: CL46706 Mª JOSEFA GÓMEZ GARCÍA
Arnold Wesker, The kitchen or A play in two acts> Copy from “reprografia” at the university. First presented on 27 June 1961 in London.
Dramatis
personae
Peter German, aggressive but god-natured, he likes to sing all the time and has a
very laud laugh. Hi is kitchen staff.
Hans German, young man almost a teenager, he can not speak well in English
very often he speaks in German. He is kitchen staff.
Monique Young woman, she is a waitress but often does a turn as hostess.
Magi
Mangolis these three are kitchen porters, we only now a bit about Dimitri, he is a Dimitri Cypriot. He is a bit of a philosopher.
Gaston Cypriot, he is forty-odd, dark complexion. He starts the play with a long
Scratch on the face
Kevin Irish man, he is new in the kitchen and is always saying that he is not going
to stay.
Max A stout man on his fifties. He likes to drink and to smoke. He has bad
temper. He is the butcher.
Frank thirty-eight years man, easygoing nature. He is the second chef
Alfredo An old chef, he is sixty-five, large-muscled and strong. He does his job
Without interfering with the rest.
Michael Boy of eighteen, as the rest of the kitchen staff he is a bit mad.
Raymond He is Italian and speaks English quiet well but with an
accent. He is in charge of the pastry.
Paul Young Jew, he is in charge of the pastry too. He like Raymond is more
calmed than the rest of the kitchen staff.
Bertha Large, mature woman, she is Jewish and she is the vegetarian cook, she is
a bit coarse.
Anne Irish woman, she is thirty-five, easygoing, soft woman
Chef A large man of about fifty-nine, he has a tiny moustache. He would prefer
to work somewhere else. He seems detached from the rest and the least
they need him the better for him.
Marango He is the proprietor of the restaurant, he is a man of seventy-five, self-pity
he suspects that everyone is conspiring against him.
Head Waiter He must be a mature man, he seems smart
Molly, Winnie, Hettie, Violet,Gwen, All these are the waitress, we do not know
Dhapne, Cynthia, Betty, Jackie much about then, just that Violet is the older
of them all.
Tramp He enters the kitchen to beg for food. He has lost his pension book, he has
paper to prove it.
Plot
It describes the environment of a kitchen and the madness attached to it. It also shows the relationship between the kitchen staff and the dining-room staff. Additionally it reveals a love story between one of the cookers and one waitress.
Space
It all happens inside the kitchen. This makes us see how the kitchen staff lives, surrounded by noise from the oven and the heat of the stoves.
Time
Lineal time. It all happens in one day, starting in the morning and finishing in the evening.
Literary
resources
Thy speak prose, colloquial English. Some of the foreigner characters speak in their language, like Hans that keeps speaking German. This helps to appreciate the mixture of different cultures that are in one single kitchen.
Other
aspects
●Politic and social; there are vestiges of the II world war in that some of the staff has
lost his family in that war, other are Jewish.
●Cost of production; It can be a expensive production, mainly for the number or
Characters that appear and also for the attrezzo.
●Technical problems; Its is quiet difficult to represent the madness of a kitchen
outside a kitchen, the actors have to play very frenetically to
recreate the tension on a kitchen.
Personal
opinion
I quiet likes this play, mainly because it describes very well the madness that go trough any kitchen staff when at work. I know it by personal experience since I have worked in many kitchens either in Spain or abroad. I like when young Hans gives away whole paragraphs in German. Also there is a typical love affair between a cooker and a waitress. Furthermore I like how it treats the little racial clash between the Germans and the Cypriots.