Camden Fringe 2014
Low Down
A woman is making egg soup in her kitchen. In fact, she lives in her kitchen.
Egg soup has always been stirring behind any major event in her life. And whenever she makes it, it all floods back to play. Funny and dark, The Egg Soup is a devised theatre piece about obsession, the loneliness that rolls with it and the need to re-create moments in our life where we most felt human. Or monster. But certainly alive…
Review
In a simple set resembling a messy kitchen Loukia Pierides is in her own world. Taking charge of the space from the start, she clowns with the audience contorting her face as she looks and stares behind her large black rimmed spectacles.
Wearing all black save for a very colouful apron and bright red lipstick Pierides moves to the table and mixes eggs. This piece does not rely on words at all, but when she speaks Pierides has a strong intoning style. She tells us that she loves a clean kitchen and in a charming way she begins to tell us about instances in her life.
The character she plays is a push-pull personality, hot and cold. This is not Betty Crocker’s kitchen! This kitchen is bathed in a warm orange light generally, but changed to cold blue/white light as she goes back expressing her strange memories physically and visually. Gregorian chant type music accompanies the memories as she transitions with quivering movement.
This character loves egg soup and proclaims that as long as she makes egg soup her kitchen would stay open. She loves food and wants the audience to love it, too. In fact, Pierides clearly enjoys herself and uses her expressive face and eyes to say far more than speaking a lot of text. She is very interactive, incorporates mime, objects and even speaks Greek briefly in one scene.
In a philosophical moment Pierides asks if we know the definition of a ‘bad egg’ and she goes on to prove her theory, in a wonderfully naïve way using her physicality and rapport with the audience very well. At times she does her own sound effects as she plays in front of us in her memory moments. She gives sly looks and waits for the reactions, which holds the audience’s attention – even if we’re not entirely sure what is happening on stage.
Through graceful arm movements, shadow play and expressive use of her body, Pierides is an effective physical storyteller with a compelling presence. Pierides has created a quirky and interesting character – and this story is well worth developing more to define the clarity and the character’s arc.
