National Theatre Live in HD: "The Kitchen" | Press Releases

Image: The Kitchen Thursday, October 6, 2011, 2 p.m. (live)
Friday, October 7, 2011, 7 p.m. (encore)
Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts continues its 2011-2012 season of the National Theatre Live in HD with "The Kitchen" by Arnold Wesker presented in a live-from-London performance broadcast at 2 p.m. on Thursday, October 6, 2011, and an encore presentation at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 7, 2011. Tickets are $25 regular, $20 seniors, and $15 for students and children.

The scene is 1950s London, in the kitchen of an enormous West End restaurant, where the orders are piling up in a post-war feast of soup, fish, cutlets, omelettes and fruit flans. Thrown together by their work, chefs, waitresses and porters from across Europe - English, Irish, German, Jewish - argue and flirt as they race to keep up. Peter, a high-spirited young cook, seems to thrive on the pressure. In between preparing dishes, he manages to strike up an affair with married waitress Monique, the whole time dreaming of a better life. But in the all-consuming clamour of the kitchen, nothing is far from the brink of collapse.

Image: The Kitchen Arnold Wesker's extraordinary play premiered at the Royal Court in 1959 and has since been performed in over 30 countries. "The Kitchen" puts the workplace centre stage in a blackly funny and furious examination of life lived at breakneck speed, when work threatens to define who we are.

"The Kitchen" has received 4-star reviews from the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, The Times , and others. The Independent calls the play a "masterpiece of construction," adding "this National revival confirms its exhilarating theatrical cosmopolitanism as well as its historical poignancy and significance."

Tickets are available through the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396 (1-877-278-7396). Tickets can also be purchased online at fairfield.edu/quick .

Image: The Kitchen The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Fairfield University at 1073 North Benson Road in Fairfield, Connecticut. Entrance to the Quick Center is through the Barlow Road gate at 200 Barlow Road. Free, secure parking is available. Access for people with disabilities is available throughout the Quick Center for audience members and performers. Hearing amplification devices are available upon request at the Box Office. Fairfield University is located off exit 22 of Interstate-95. For further information and directions, call (203) 254-4010 or 1-877-278-7396, or visit fairfield.edu/quick

Images: top) Katie Lyons (Monique), Tim Samuels (Head Waiter) and Rendah Heywood (Hettie); middle) Neal Barry (Frank), Craig Els (Nicholas), Tom Brooke (Peter) and Rory Keenan (Kevin); bottom) Members of The Kitchen company. Photos by Marc Brenner.