The Kitchen
eBook - ePub

The Kitchen

  1. 96 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Kitchen

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About This Book

Arnold Wesker's perennially popular play The Kitchen will be revived at the National Theatre in October 2011.Set in the basement kitchen of a large restaurant, thirty chefs, waitresses, and kitchen porters, slowly begin the day preparing to serve lunch. The central story tells of a frustrated love affair between a high-spirited, young, German chef, Peter, and a married English waitress, Monique.

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Information

Publisher
Oberon Books
Year
2012
ISBN
9781849437578
Edition
1

Part One

There is no curtain. The kitchen is always there. In semi-darkness.
The night porter, MAGI, enters, stretches, looks at his watch, registers with distaste where he is. It is seven in the morning.
He ā€˜lightsā€™ a taper, ā€˜firesā€™ the first of the seven ovens. Each oven explodes into a burn. With each burn comes more light.
Light and sound accumulate. The kitchenā€™s hum builds to a small roar ā€“ a battle with dialogue to the end.1
MAGI lights the fourth oven ā€“ MAX enters.
MAGI: Morning, Max.
MAX grunts, goes directly to the cold-cupboard,
collects a bottle of beer, opens and drinks.
MAGI lights the last oven ā€“ BERTHA enters.
BERTHA: Good morning, Magi.
MAGI: Morning, Bertha.
BERTHA: Good morning, Max.
MAX belches.
Enter HETTIE and VIOLET from street, en route to changing room.
HETTIE: What bloody agency found you this job?
VIOLET: A very respectable agency, I thought.
HETTIE: Well you thought
wrong, didnā€™t you!
BERTHA needs help with a full pot.
BERTHA: Hey, Magi, give us a hand with this.
MAGI: OK, love.
BETTY and WINNIE enter en route to changing room, pausing to glance at the dayā€™s menu chalked on a board.
BETTY: I canā€™t help it, weather affects me.
WINNIE: I never let anything affect meā€¦
BETTY: Everything affects meā€¦
WINNIE: Lifeā€™s too short.
BETTY: ā€¦music affects me, neighbours affect meā€¦
WINNIE: Problem is, I donā€™t get very angry with anything.
BETTY: ā€¦this bloody kitchen affects me with its bloody boring menu.
WINNIE: But I donā€™t get very happy at anything either, know what I mean?
Theyā€™ve gone.
During next moments MANGOLIS comes on and off depositing dustbins in various positions.
MAGI: Bertha ā€“
BERTHA: Yes?
MAGI: Iā€™ve got a confession ā€“
BERTHA: So early?
MAGI: ā€“ that ten shillingsā€¦
BERTHA: You havenā€™t got it? So you havenā€™t got it! You emigrating?
MAGI: No.
BERTHA: Then Iā€™ll wait.
MAGI: Youā€™re a good girl, Bertha.
BERTHA: Good ā€“ I am, but a girl?
MAGI: Go on, I could fancy you.
BERTHA: Fancy? Boy, Iā€™d crack you in a crunch. Crrrrrunch!
MAGI: Bertha, you worry me.
BERTHA: I worry him.
PAUL and RAYMOND from the changing room make for their corner, tools in hand.
PAUL: (To the world.) Good morning, good morning. (To BERTHA.) Morning, me old darling.
BERTHA: Morning.
PAUL: (To MAX.) And to you, Max.
MAX: (Soul not yet returned.) Morninā€™.
RAYMOND: Max, itā€™s escallop of veal on today?
MAX: How many?
RAYMOND: Three. Iā€™ll take them now and put them in my box, before the others get here.
GASTON followed by DIMITRI enter en route for changing room.
RAYMOND, noticing GASTONā€™s black eye, whistles.
GASTON glares.
DIMITRI gestures RAYMOND to desist.
MAX: (Handing RAYMOND the escallops.) And donā€™t forget my puff pastry tomorrow.
RAYMOND: Usual?
MAX: A little extra. My wifeā€™s family is coming for Sunday lunch. Magi, give us a hand.
MAGI helps MAX carry tray of beef to ALFREDOā€™s station.
KEVIN enters, lost.
New cook?
KEVIN New cook.
MAX: Changing roomā€™s there.
KEVIN moves to changing rooms.
PAUL: (To RAYMOND.) Donā€™t forget itā€™s Religieuse today.
RAYMOND: (Saluting.) Aye, aye, Commandant! But please let me make them? All week Iā€™ve been making fruit bands, fruit bands! All week.
PAUL: Alright, alright ā€“ Christ! youā€™re a nag.
HETTIE and VIOLET en route to the dining room.
VIOLET is new, and aghast at what sheā€™s walking through.
HETTIE: Follow me to the dining-room.
VIOLET: Iā€™m not used ...

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Half-title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Characters
  7. Part One
  8. Interlude
  9. Part Two