After Sunday’s Review – Cooking Class Reveals Rising Tensions in the Secure Hospital | stage

TThe heat rises slowly, then suddenly reaches boiling point, in Sophia Griffin’s first play. Set in a secure hospital in Birmingham – cut off from the rest of life – occupational therapist Naomi (Amy Powell) begins hosting weekly Caribbean cooking classes. Believing in the meditative power of food, she hopes to engage men with memories of home-cooked meals and perhaps provide a space for difficult conversations to flourish. But, with the exciting historical events of Ty, Leroy and Daniel, the room could turn into conflict with one wrong move.

Over the course of the sessions, the men’s pasts became progressively less murky. The youngest, Ty (a brilliant, bravura-filled performance from Corey Weekes), is desperate to get out and return to prison. Leroy (David Webber) has been on the ward for what seems like forever and is as afraid to leave as he longs for freedom. The new arrival, Daniel (Darryl Bailey), just wants to get fixed up quickly and reconnect with his family. Griffin withholds the details of the characters’ crimes until the right moment, allowing us to learn about them first. When we finally hear snippets of it, it feels like a punch in the skull.

This is because each of them is shaped into a form with depth and substance, and Griffin’s play focuses on what it means to exist in an environment like this. Banter and tension bubble between the group, and what seem like small things on the surface become enormous – like the idea of ​​cooking for loved ones on a Friends and Family Day in Unity. There are some exceptional performances, too, especially from Weber, whose voice wavers and cracks as Leroy tries to craft a letter to his estranged daughter.

Breathing is key to Corey Campbell’s direction, which sees the men violently charging forward in action sequences between scenes. With the soundtrack composed by XANA, the possibility of full fury hangs in the air. We are still longing to be with the men at the end of the play, with the final scene feeling unresolved. But Griffin paints a vivid picture of a system in crisis. Driven by Naomi’s impossible battles with superiors and a burning desire for things to get better, it hurts.