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A Little
Pinch of Chilli is a one man show within a melting pot of comedy
and sadness.
The
plot follows Chef Godfrey Tucker, who confesses his inner thoughts
and stories from the past to the present. The 52-year-old has just
been made redundant from the Merchant Navy, which he joined in Liverpool
when he was fifteen.
The
Everyman audience is served up comic lines whilst Godfrey deals
with unemployment, loneliness, age, bitterness and the realisation
that he might never cook onboard a ship again. Sadly, the only constant
thing in his life is his regular cooking ingredient: chilli.
Louis
Emerick, known to most as Mick Johnson in Brookside grabs the audience
by the perfectly timed cocktail of funny tales stirred in with depression,
anger and isolation. With no interval, Emerick successfully entertains
throughout the long one hour and forty five minute performance;
cutting and slicing his way through lines and vegetables in an expert
fashion.
The
star behind the facade is writer Maurice Bessman. This first Liverpool
Everyman and Playhouse commission apart from panto, the project
started as a short play for Carlton Television’s Single Voices series.
Director
Heather Robson, designer Jocelyn Meall, and lighting designer Rob
Beamer allow Emerick to move around the stage to create the different
shards of his character. The set was simple yet effective, creating
the sounds and smells of a real life working kitchen in a self contained
flat within sight of a dock frontage.
Motown,
Soul, and a little Garage scored a soundtrack to Godfrey’s timeline,
and with no interval an enjoyable stop-gap for set and costume changes.
Music also delivers one of the most funniest parts of the play as
Emerick received claps from around the room as he bumped and grinded
to James Brown ‘Sex Machine,’ that could even challenge even Will
Smith.
If
you want to be cheered up then A Little Pinch of Chilli provides
a brilliant remedy as Godfrey’s funny tales are stirred in with
poignant thoughts and images, creating a culinary masterpiece that
would be happy in a four star restaurant.
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