The Kitchen

by Arnold Wesker

Arnold Wesker's perennially popular play. The central story tells of a frustrated love affair between a high-spirited, young German chef, Peter, and a married English waitress, Monique.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre

99 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Sir Arnold Wesker is a British dramatist known for his contributions to world drama. He is the author of 50 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, a book on journalism, a children's book, extensive journalism, poetry and other assorted writings. His plays have been translated into 17 languages and performed worldwide.

Reviews

[Grace Turner]

Hilarious, realistic yet so absurd. Beautiful build in the service scene. This play is absolutely an ensemble piece, and relies heavily on an understanding of tempo and of shifting atmospheres. Not to be attempted half-heartedly.

[Alex Castillo Barona]

Llegué al texto después de ver la adaptación cinematográfica de Alonso Ruiz Palacios. Me maravilla que una obra de los años 50s siga tan vigente y me parece una genialidad la forma que tomó bajo la mano del director de cine mexicano. El texto original es poderoso y muy adelantado a su época. Buena lectura complementaria a la experiencia cinematográfica.

[fer bañuelos]

Mucho texto, muchos personajes, muchos diálogos, pero poco disfrute. Se sintió muy messy en el sentido que a mi parecer nunca se termina de concentrar en una sola cosa; es abrumante la cantidad de cosas que están sucediendo simultaneamente.

[Mxj]

3, 3.5/5
This is the type of plays that doesn't really make it on paper but is probably amazing to see - a short and nice read, the ending was amazing in my opinion but some other scenes didn't make it as much

[Arknel Marques]

A great exercise for an actor, but weak in everything else

[Deborah Pal]

Si legge nel giro di poco tempo poiché si tratta di un libercolo ma forse non ne vale la pena

[oyku]

kitchen sink drama is in the real place

[Ronan Lynch]

literal que

[Nyt]

this play is hilarious, full of absurd things where one can see things shifting from chaos to mundane things and back to chaos like it didn't happen. while this is a kitchen sink drama , it also highlights the post war life of immigrants and then meeting the living. Characters talking about the most serious things in most mundane surroundings, being mouth piece of Arnold Wesker himself were my best parts , highlighting human life .

ps. i highly recommend to watch the play available on YouTube too , it helps us understand the play even better.

[Ione]

This play is ludicrous.

[Mance]

I started reading a year ago and finished today. Not much of a play reader. Ending was pretty strange.