Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water For Chocolate)

Published Thursday 12 October 2006 at 15:25 by Christopher Collett

You’ll need a cold shower after watching Como Agua Para Chocolate. Adapted from Laura Esquivel’s 1989 novel, this Spanish language staging by Hexham-based Theatre Sans Frontieres burns with a passion that threatens to set fire to the stage.

This is largely due to an incendiary performance from Alejandra Ambrosi Cortes who stars as Tita, the youngest of three daughters living in early 20th century Mexico. Forbidden to marry her love Pedro by her dominating mother who wants her daughter instead to look after her in her dotage, Tita pours her unfulfilled desires into her cooking, awakening dormant feelings in all those who taste it.

Performing the show in its original tongue also turns up the heat as Spanish is far more romantic than English. Furthermore, the language barrier means that director John Cobb has had to employ a variety of inventive theatrical tricks to help the largely non-Spanish speaking audience follow the story.

A silent movie sequence is particularly effective, as is the mask work in the flash back sequences and composer Iain Johnstone’s magical incidental music.

The production also makes a virtue of the doubling up of parts. Alicia Martel shows off her versatility switching between Tita’s vivacious sister Gertrudis and elderly cook Nacha, while Leonila Arguello Chavarria provides frequent comic interludes, coming out of her role as family servant Chencha to play an excited chicken and a crying baby.

Although there were times when I failed to follow the convoluted plot, particularly during the second half, the scorching energy of the show more than compensated for the moments of confusion.