The theatre show with added curry

Of course I’d be interested – I’m a gun for hire (which sounds more exciting than freelance writer).Stefan Escreet, an associate of the well-regarded Theatre By the Lake in Keswick and the man making the call, had heard about a play I’d written and thought I might be a good fit for an idea he’d had.

He was talking to a few different writers about the project and while I wouldn’t exactly have to pitch myself to the project, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that I would be the writer he’d choose. “Why don’t I send you a script I use as an example of my work – it’s set in an Indian Restaurant,” I said. Stefan called back the next day and a creative team was born.

That was about six months ago and last week I joined Stefan and two actors in the Lake District for a week of developing the play, now called The Chef Show. Stefan had heartfelt reasons for wanting the play to exist. His concept is intriguing: two actors play all the parts in a play that tells the story of a busy night in an Indian restaurant. The actors will be staff, owners, customers. Think John Godber’s Bouncers or Jim Cartwright’s Two with added masala.

The stroke of genius of the production is that on stage is a chef, cooking with the actors performing around him, and the chef is always from a takeaway or restaurant local to the venue.

The idea is that audiences have a great night out, but there is also genuine community cohesion – people who live side by side have a chance of more meaningful interaction than ordering ‘chicken bhuna and four chapattis please’. Chefs meet the audience and hopefully a genuine relationship is born. Stefan was always very clear he wanted to introduce communities to each other, that was his reason for wanting to create the show.

Here’s a confession: I wanted to write the play because I am a gun for hire. The admirable ideals of the director were great and all, but writing scripts is what I do. I liked the idea and it definitely appealed to the kind of work I make – stories of the contemporary British Asian experience – but I’d have said yes whatever the play. A week of development later, in which we toured an extract of the play to Keswick, Thirsk, Barnoldswick and Lancaster and I am fully bought into the notion, not least because in Thirsk, I watched it actually happen: people who had been visiting the Banyam Tree, where our guest chef had come from, were talking to him. They were having real conversations, about real things. This was genuine community interaction. The play will tour in September this year, with the help of various rural touring networks, including one based in North Yorkshire. The Rural Touring Network does what it says on the tin: it helps theatre companies tour work to underserved venues.

Spending the last week taking The Chef Show to village halls in Dunsop Bridge, Barnoldswick and Thirsk convinced me more than ever of the importance of allowing these communities to have access to art. It’s vital. We’ll see you in September.