Review: The Kitchen Witches

Actresses Kim Williamson (left) and Lisa Thorne are at each others' throats as Kitchen Witches rival cooks. Quentin Pidduck plays the producer in the middle of the mayhem. Photo/file

Take two feuding chefs who hate the sight of each other, place together in a studio kitchen for a live TV show, allow old rivalries to simmer until boiling, and what do you have? It can only be a recipe for mayhem.

You don't need to be a fan of the ubiquitous cooking shows on television to find Detour's latest madcap comedy an absolute hoot.

Bickering starts when one B-celebrity chef even complains that her dressing room is further from the set than the other's.

The four-strong cast -- Kim Williamson and Lisa Thorne playing arch-rivals Dolly Biddle and Isobel Lomax, Quentin Pidduck as frustrated floor manager and Dolly's son Stephen, along with Alex Gilmour in the role of camera-hugging Robb -- keep the laughs coming thick and fast.

Director Devon Williamson has skilfully adapted Canadian playwright Caroline Smith's script, throwing in plenty of references to local landmarks like Greerton, Bellevue and even the traffic on Turret Rd at rush hour.

Cracking one-liners such as when Dolly urges Stephen to relax and declares "That boy is like a wigwam and a tepee - two tents" (too tense - geddit?) and Isobel snarls at Dolly "You've got more bull than the Mad Butcher" had the audience chortling right through Thursday's opening night performance.

There's a twist in the plot when it turns out that Isobel has a surprise to spring as the arguing turns to the affair she had with Dolly's late husband Larry and the matter of whose son Stephen actually is.

Billed as "a delicious comedy", The Kitchen Witches won a prestigious Canadian theatre award and has been staged around the world in a variety of languages.

Even the audience get their own role, doubling as the TV studio audience with cues for "applause" at appropriate moments.

Detour's manic production is set to cook up a storm that will send you home chuckling.
It runs until September 22.