Elmina's Kitchen

by Kwame Kwei-Armah

You can't just walk into dis bad man t'ing, you gotta learn the whole science of it. You step into that arena and you better be able to dance wid death til it mek you dizzy.

Deli is trying to revive the fortunes of his mother's restaurant in Murder Mile, Hackney. But where does his son disappear to on the night of the re-opening? And why does his friend Digger offer him protection? Elmina's Kitchen is a thrilling, engaging portrait of a one-parent family struggling to stay within the law while the Yardies are carving up the neighbourhood.

Elmina's Kitchen premiered at the Royal National Theatre, London, in May 2003.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Read For School, Theatre

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2003

Reviews

[Elinor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of plays, this would definitely be better seen performed rather than read. That being said it was still a good read. I could tell where it was headed so it was a slow crawl towards the inevitable heartbreaking ending - which I think is the point. You can tell where it's going and hope that the characters can stop it but they end up exactly where you expect.

[Taylor Rousselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure I can even rate this because it wasn’t written for me, but i loved it nonetheless. heartbreaking and extremely poignant

[Lydia Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in preparation for my Third Year University Course on Tragedy. Again, I’m finding the vast majority of these plays to be beyond my frail intellect. They seem a little to lofty and abstract for me. That being said, I much preferred this one to many of the others, as I could easily follow the story, and appreciated being able to recognise the characters from their identifiable tropes. I found this play to be considerably more heartfelt than others I’ve read in preparation for this course, perhaps due to the relatability of attempting to nurture a widening parent-child relationship. I am excited to learn more about all of these texts from my tutors, and to consider their difference from the Classic and Shakespearean tragic dramas I have encountered and come to love. Perhaps soon I will be snow to say the same for contemporary plays.

[Zoe Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sound of pain in this play echoes Philoctetes…
Engaging use of dialect/Jamaican slang brings neighbourhood to life; sense of inevitability strong; speech and the unspeakable frequently brought to light; spirituality; intrusion of song; fraught parent-child relationship compares well with Earthquakes in London.

[Pat Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We have entered a stranger’s dream, and for trespassing he has rewarded us with his worst nightmare”

[Joel Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tragic story about a flawed family in Hackney's 'murder mile' in the early 2000s

[Becca Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was heartbreaking but clever. Had to read (and watch simulatenously) for uni. Very very good. Devastating, but good.

[Oz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t understand a great deal of this play. This isn’t a slight – it wasn’t written for me to understand, and there’s something quite refreshing in that. For me it was an interesting slice of life into a world I’m unfamiliar with, for others I’m sure it’s even better in its relatability.

[Jack Lamotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

broke my heart