I was contacted by the Communications Coordinator from Gateway Theatre, located in Richmond BC. She invited me to see a a complimentary show called Cook Your Life that took place from September 17 – 19, 2015 during their Gateway Theatre Pacific Festival.
The show featured MayMay Chan who cooked live on stage while doing a comedic solo skit about love and relationships, and how they have parallel similarities with food. It was the first of its kind that I had seen and it was interesting to watch.
The show incorporates a 4-D theatre approach where the audience can not only just see and hear, but also smell and taste (for those lucky as some food samples gets passed around) to enhance the theatre experience.
MayMay is not only a performer, but a cook as well with her own cooking channel in Hong Kong. She performs in Cantonese as the two screens on each side of the stage, showed the surtitles in both Chinese and English.
She was very lively and energetic. She spoke quickly, which made the subtitles seem to lag way behind. She threw in a lot of improv, especially during when she would invite some of the audiences up to help her with cooking and such. Although it wasn’t an usual situation where I would be surrounded by people talking in a language where I was clueless, I did feel a slight disconnect, or an outsider feeling. My Chinese friend understood only Mandarin, so he was as clueless as I was.
At the end, he didn’t quite enjoy it as he didn’t like all the whining and girlie-talk that he couldn’t relate to. Although the surtitles were quite limited for the amount of actual talking May Chan actually did, I did however understand the main just of the story, and as a female, could relate to the relationship issues she brought up. Her insightful analogies between food and love and was intriguing.
Its always so interesting to see one person play so many different roles, and be convincing. What’s always even more credible is that she also created, produce, and directed the show as well.
As for the theatre venue itself, parking costs 1 hour $2.50, 2 hours $5 and so on. No inbetween times. But it is free after 9pm. There were helpful ushers and friendly staff with freebies for facials at this particular event.
Thank you Gateway for a unique experience!