The Hot Wing King – National Theatre

Directed by Roy Alexander Weise, Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize winning comedy makes its London debut in the relatively modest Dorfman Theatre.

Set in Memphis, Tennessee and playing out in the interior of a particularly well-endowed suburban home expertly designed for the stage by Rajha Shakiry, this is no minimalistic kitchen sink drama. With running water coming from the taps, steam rising from the pots, and marinade dripping from big wooden stirring spoons, this is a theatrical experience with all the trimmings. Head chef and hopeful hot wing competition champion, Cordell (Kadiff Kirwan), plates up scrumptious chicken and sizzling drama in his boyfriend Dwayne’s (Simon-Anthony Rhoden) illustriously decorated middle-class kitchen.

Circumnavigating the colossal counter island where Cordell’s culinary magic is being made is a ragtag crew of uneasy lovers Big Charles (Jason Barnett) and Isom (Olisa Odele), Dwayne’s unmoored teenage nephew, EJ (Kaireece Denton), and EJ’s even less together father, TJ (Dwane Walcott). As their hot sauce simmers and each character circles closer to their boiling point, the cast keeps a blistering snappy humour zipping back and forth across the stage. Their collective chemistry is compelling and comforting, particularly in the moments during which the play takes on surprisingly heavy themes. Musical interludes composed and directed Femi Temowo provide add a richness to the play’s most overtly theatrical moments in both its dramatic and comedic throughlines; however, his dramaturgical and stylistic choice stands in contrast to much else of the play’s writing and design.

For ninety percent of the play’s two hour and forty minute the action plays out in the style of a television program more than it does a piece theatre. Elena Peña’s sound design seems deliberately evocative of the sound cues that signal the end of sitcom’s commercial breaks and the realism of Shakiry’s cutaway house set puts viewers in the seats of a live studio audience. Caught between these two world’s Joshua Pharo’s lighting design is a little too clever for its own good and jarringly underlines the disparity between the naturalism of the actors’ performances and the artificiality of the environment. Similarly disorienting is the bizarre cognitive experience of watching the live theatrical simulation of cooking and hearing flavours being described but not being able to experience the aromas of actual proximate cooking.

The story is moving, and its performers tear through it with fire, but it does not ever fully justify its immediacy and vivacity particularly in the context of almost entirely white British audiences whose reactions to affected African American Vernacular English come as delayed as the spice kick of pelepele peppers. Nonetheless, the story has tremendous heart and its characters who populate it are intensely loveable. The Hot Wing King is feel-good theatre as comforting as a home cooked meal and well worth the time it takes to work its slow burn.

Reviewer: Kira Daniels

Reviewed: 20th July 2024

North West End UK Rating: