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[Theater reviews]

Bi bim bab
Cookin’ serves up a light meal

BY CLEA SIMON

Cookin’
Directed by Chul Ki Choi. Conceived by Seung Whan Song. Scenic design by Dong Woo Park. Costume design by Hee Joo Kim. Lighting design by Jong Hwa Park. Sound design by Ki Young Kim. Choreography by Ok Soon Kang and Lynne Taylor-Corbett. With Sang Jin Hong, Choo Ja Seo, Won Hae Kim, Seung Yong You, and Chang Jik Lee. Presented by Wang Center Productions at the Shubert Theatre through September 23.

Korean food, if the offerings around Cambridge are to be trusted, is filling. It’s a cuisine suited for cold winters: heavy on the meat and noodles, loaded with garlic and peppers. But Cookin’, the Korean theatrical export that purports to be the percussive equivalent of a banquet, is more amuse-bouche than beefy bulgoki, even after 90 minutes of strenuous efforts by an engaging young cast.

Depending on what you hunger for, that may be enough. Set to the very sketchy story line of a restaurant crew who need to prepare a huge wedding banquet in just 60 minutes (à la Iron Chef), the show, which got some nice reviews when it played Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival in 1999, certainly has energy. It opens on a calm note, with ringing rice bowls and a somber museum air. But faster than you can say bi bim bab, the colorful folkloric costumes are torn off to reveal contemporary chef’s whites, a spare industrial kitchen set, and a funky score based on what the program notes inform us is samulnori, a contemporary adaptation of the traditional nong-ak work songs. The main performers are these four chefs (three professionals and the restaurant manager’s bratty nephew), who cook, panic, and fall in love, all to a beat that recalls Blue Man Group’s overamplified groove. Samulnori, which the notes explain translates to " playing with four instruments, " usually combines rhythms on traditional instruments; here the beats are pounded out on cutting boards, kitchen counters, pots, pans, and people’s heads. Vegetables fly, hearts get broken, but when the clock runs out, somehow all turns out for the best.

Like Stomp and its other spinoffs, Cookin’ plays on the hunger for found percussion that seems to have engaged audiences worldwide. In among the polyrhythms, however, the show weaves humor, sleight of hand, audience participation, and a bit of martial-arts maneuvering that really cries out for a talent like Jackie Chan. Such manic activity — knife tricks piled upon plate juggling piled upon pratfalls — verges on desperate, but the pacing of the choreography pretty much disguises the effort involved. (On opening night, Choo Ja Seo, the one female cast member, did nearly wipe out while dancing around the food-scrap-covered floor. That she missed only a few steps does credit to the crew’s athleticism.)

Beyond the beat, the small cast aren’t given much to work with. Their characters don’t even have names, and characterizations are slight, consisting of little more than some bluff posturing by Sexy Food Dude (the bearded Seung Yong You) and mugging by the pop-eyed Nephew (Sang Jin Hong). During one decidedly Western-style vegetable medley (there is no other way to describe this routine of harmony and cutlery), Choo Ja Seo (listed simply as Female Cook) gyrates her Britney-quality exposed belly, and in his too brief appearances the Manager (Chang Jik Lee) plays the rotund straight man. When the cast get to let loose — as when the lanky Head Chef (Won Hae Kim) gets stuck in a garbage pail — they show a nice ability for physical humor. Watching Kim hop froglike across the stage with the pail on his butt makes for humor that’s about as subtle as kim chee, but this critic wasn’t the only one laughing.

If only they’d left it at that. Somewhere along the line, the plot gets utterly lost. (I should point out that regulations have kept the show from doing live cooking, which seems to have been a feature in the original production.) The clock stops moving, and the exaggerated menu of banquet dishes becomes one more prop to be ignored. Instead of staying anywhere near the story line, the show is by its second half reaching out to other shows for excuses to keep the knives pounding. Blue Man Group gimmicks — such as water on a drumhead — turn up for no reason. Colorful balls fly out at an audience that is also plumbed for volunteers for a dumpling challenge, which features a conveyor belt straight out of I Love Lucy. We get our happy ending, thanks to a magical microwave, but by then the concept is overdone. This is a fun show, of little substance, and it works best when it’s just knives and rhythm and cabbage flying like fireworks. Keeping such Cookin’ homestyle would have made for a much tastier dish.

The performance reviewed here took place after the Phoenix’s Arts section had gone to press.

Issue Date: September 6 - 13, 2001

 





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