HULL Truck is whisking up an old favourite, completing a hat trick of runs of Lee Hall’s lewd, rude and not-for-the-prudish Cooking With Elvis after hit productions in 2003 and 2005.
Now, Elvis is in the new building, and cooking on gas mark five with three of the original cast re-united, joined by Victoria Elliott in a fantastic Truck debut.
This very lively show comes with the enticing hook of “Sex, Food and the King – what more could you ask for?”, and short of the real Elvis himself popping over from his Ryedale retirement home, it is hard to think what could beat that winning combination.
Let’s not beat about the bush, the sauce in Cooking With Elvis is not really in the cooking but the sexual shenanigans. Take Confessions films into earthier, franker, Shameless territory, then toss in more than a dash of Viz and thicken with the kitchen-sink pathos of Hall’s Billy Elliot and The Pitmen Painters, and you have a romping play that is hotter than an Elvis hip swivel.
Told from the naïve yet not-so-innocent perspective of 14-year-old domestic science enthusiast Jill (Elliott), Hall’s North Eastern domestic drama opens with Jill and her Mam (Jackie Lye) looking after quadriplegic Dad (Jim Kitson), a former Elvis impersonator and surveyor now confined to a wheelchair. Jill eats too much; Mam drinks too much and eats not enough to stay in trim to seduce young men.
Her latest catch is Stuart (Chris Connel), a dimwit as thick as the cream at his cake factory, and he is in for a rough ride, faced by a family with rising sexual frustrations (yes, even “Elvis” is all shook up by the end).
This is a bravura piece of theatre, outrageously confident in its handling of such risqué material, and full of surprises too, especially when it veers into darker territory as mother and daughter struggle with the conflicting feelings of duty and the need to have a life of their own.
Elliot is particularly impressive in these raw scenes, although the sight of her idly working her way through an ice cream and chatting to the audience over the shoulder of Stuart mid-flagrante will live longest in the memory.
You would be hard pushed to find another cast enjoying themselves more than Gareth Tudor Price’s quartet as they give their all without a shred of embarrassment. For the cherry on this very fruity cake, Hilton’s Elvis keeps popping up in unexpected places to provide a one-man Greek chorus with apposite songs and philosophy from the King’s mouth.
Elvis is very much alive and cooking.
Cooking With Elvis, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until July 10. Box office: 01482 323638.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here