Serving Up Food and Farce

A Recipe For Disaster – Windy City Playhouse

Windy City Playhouse, Chicago’s preeminent theatre company for immersive dramas and comedies, is back at the table, so to speak. Playwrights Carl Menninger and Amy Rubenstein join forces with Chicago top chef, Rick Bayless, the master chef behind the Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, to create this new comedy that serves up food and farce at a frantic pace. The result, directed by David H. Bell with the same momentum as “Noises Off,” is a side-splitting, savory treat that’s a real feast for all the senses, particularly the sense of humor.

The basic plot isn’t difficult to understand, but the story becomes complicated by all sorts of unexpected problems. It’s “Influencers Night” at this fictitious, hot new Chicago restaurant called the Contumacious Pig, a name that’s constantly hilariously slaughtered by one of the cast members. The evening’s patrons are all supposedly social media mavens, and each is given a name tag to wear with their assigned table and bearing their pretend screen name (mine was “www.BiteMe.com”). Two of the internet critics in attendance are a ditzy blonde named Kiki, magnificently played by Carley Cornelius, and her man-hungry, kleptomaniac sidekick, Loreen, played with sparkle and sass by the radiant Kierra Bunch. Before the audience is seated in the dining room in the lower level of the Petterino’s, beautifully designed set by William Boles, we linger in the bar/lobby. While enjoying cocktails and appetizers, the audience become flies on the wall. We’re privy to the many problems with which Shelley (Emma Jo Boyden, an impressive, take-charge ringmaster), the restaurant’s assistant manager, is being forced to deal with this particular evening. These will set the ball rolling for the convoluted plot and continual conflicts that follow.

First and foremost, the head chef hasn’t shown up for tonight’s important event and her culinary skills are obviously in great demand. So Shelley persuades Jude, her boyfriend and the restaurant’s talented but insecure Sous Chef (wonderfully played with excellent comic timing by Ben Page), to take the reins in the kitchen. One of the waitstaff is also absent but a substitute named Boris (portrayed with devious delight by Ian Maryfield) has arrived in his place. As we listen in, however, we discover that Boris is actually a spy from his own Chicago eatery, and his mission is to sabotage the entire evening. 

Then Clyde, the city Health Inspector (a very officious Ryan Reilly), unexpectedly shows up on this auspicious evening to thoroughly scrutinize every detail of the restaurant’s operation. The titular pork finally arrives late and has to be kept hidden because it’s not USDA approved. Cooking assistants Iggy (a wonderfully funny Alex Morales) and Felix (the acrobatic circus talent, Daniel Trinidad) do everything in their power to keep the evening on task. The resulting comedy is as if the Marx Brothers, Abbot and Costello and The Three Stooges were all gathered together in one story.

While the immersive element cleverly allows the audience to become a part of the ongoing melee, at times the play feels more like a frantic free-for-all. The dining room is very wide, causing some of the audience to miss out on important plot points, depending upon where they’re sitting. The seats are backless stools that aren’t particularly comfortable. The variety of food is interesting, with one of the appetizers, the roasted dates with smoky gorgonzola and cilantro, the standout of the evening. The pasta dish was good and the pork-less dauphinoise potatoes with cream and herbs had a certain appeal. But the avocado-chocolate mousse dessert was a most delectable way to end the evening. In addition, the meal was accompanied by a Greek white wine and an Argentinian red, both quite nice.

Following the brilliant success of their soap opera-like comedy, “Southern Gothic,” Windy City Playhouse has created another entertaining immersive farce for Chicagoland audiences. As in plays of this kind, the actual stage is missing and the audience is seated within the performance itself. Patrons are completely surrounded by the characters and the action of the play, and the lines of reality and fiction become blurred. In Director David H. Bell’s production, there’s an element of controlled chaos that can be a bit unsettling. But it’s a three ring circus that features farce and food in a play that’ll leave audiences stuffed and satisfied.            

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented October 6-December 31 by Windy City Playhouse at Petterino’s, 150 N Dearborn, Chicago.

Tickets are available at www.windycityplayhouse.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.