Kate Owens review: Cooking with Kathryn is a messy, hilarious riot
Edinburgh Fringe
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Edinburgh Fringe 〰️
Image: Arin Sang-urai
by Zoe Paskett
Kathryn is a dedicated daughter and aspiring cooking show host. She’s the latest in a long line of Kathryns to serve her church community through the medium of delicious Bible-approved meals. Her late mother hosted the show for 25 years before she died. Those are big shoes to fill, but Kathryn’s up to the challenge – or at least she’s trying her best to be.
Her face fixed with a false smile and dead behind the eyes, Kate Owens teeters around the stage in her hot pink peplum dress and heels. She plays Kathryn with complete commitment and, as things begin inevitably to unravel, the Southern Belle never waivers. No matter what comes her way, she’s a consummate professional – no blender lid? Her hand will do. No whisk? Didn’t I just say that’s what hands are for? No plaster for when she cuts that hand? Tin foil does the same thing. Kathryn powers through an escalating series of culinary disasters with that same blithe smile.
Kate delivers all-round excellence in Cooking with Kathryn. She’s a multi-talented performer, displaying her extraordinary clowning chops, brave-faced vulnerability and gorgeous singing voice (perfect for church). Everything is meticulously considered. There are just as many visual gags as verbal ones, from the bulldog clips down the back of her dress to the family history she presents via overhead projector. The stage is a feast for the eyes, even as it gets increasingly covered in egg.
This show contains some of my favourite audience interaction that I’ve seen this Fringe, as Kathryn sets her eyes and heart on a man in the third row, a romance that unfolds even as the pressure of the generations bear down upon her and she takes more swigs from a flat glass bottle that definitely contains water.
Getting to see Cooking With Kathryn is the perfect example of a welcome Fringe surprise: someone new to me and the Fringe, who has created something that fully reflects its anarchic, messy spirit. An absolute riot.
Kate Owens: Cooking with Kathryn is at Underbelly Cowgate (Big Belly) at 17:10. Tickets here
