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Talented but left wanting more

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Kate Owens’ show “Cooking with Kathryn” is a show about Kathryn, a woman from the American South who has inherited a TV cooking show, hosted in the basement of her local church, after the recent death of her mother. 

We start off with Kathryn introducing her family history, with some beautifully crafted visual props, and the spectre of her deceased mother is planted. We’re then plunged into some chaotic physical comedy as Kathryn creates three recipes for us (and destroys the set in the process). This includes a deliberately gross blender concoction scene which is not for the faint-hearted, and unravels before our eyes, before coming to terms with her past. 

The physical comedy is accomplished, but the depiction of Kathryn remains strangely compassionless until the final 10 minutes of the show, where she springs to technicolour. We’re very much encouraged to laugh at her, which feels hollow. The blank stares and dead air with a glassy-eyed rictus grin provokes a smile initially but loses appeal on repeated occasions, and the clowning drags in the middle section. There’s a heavy reliance on particular members of the crowd participating, which is brave to commit to, but veers too far into uncomfortable territory at times, and will be challenging to have obliging participants every night of the run. 

There is a redemption of sorts, with a hilarious song at the end of the show, and it clear a vast amount of  work has gone into this show – the set design, the props, are all great, and Kate is clearly a talented performer, and fantastic singer, but this just felt like a rich seam of comedy had only just scraped the surface, and I’d have loved for it to have dug a little deeper.    

Kate Owens: Cooking with Kathryn runs until 24 August, at 17:10 at Underbelly Cowgate. For tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/kate-owens-cooking-with-kathryn