Edinburgh Guide  ½
Shona Brodie
August 2003 (online)

I love black comedy when it is done well and in this kitchen it is cooked to perfection.

Nabokov Company should be very proud of themselves. Making full use of Vanessa Badham's cleverly written script they deliver an impressive and believable Festival production.

Helene and Owen are Human Resources Managers content in their executive apartment, living their own lives. When Owen loses his job they both begin to lose the plot as they struggle to win control in the kitchen. Mature performances from Nina Millns (Helene) and George Perrin (Owen) convincingly convey exaggerated realisms of coupledom, and they work confidently together to deliver their lines with great vivacity. You are drawn into their world, their fight for supremacy, as the uncomfortable truisms get more outrageous, keeping the production moving and gripping its audience.

The young Australian playwright Badham has been described in her home country as 'the most exciting new voice in Australian theatre', and was awarded the Young Playwright of the Year Award in 1999. This tight production does her writing justice and makes compelling viewing.

Both Millns and Perrin will be leaving Nabokov after this Festival production so catch them while you can, grab yourself a drink and laugh, if somewhat uncomfortably, out loud. Full of expression and sexual friction, this is intelligently funny, emotionally acted and very scarily 'too close for comfort' real. The battle of the sexes this time rests not in the bedroom but in the Kitchen.

Read this article on Edinburgh Guide website.