Review: "Serving Brulee" at FringeNYC
Left to Right: Ivy Hong as Michelle Stiles. Sone Anandpara as Lila Das. Photo credit is P. Santhiago.
Max Berry
Contributing New York Critic
I was intrigued when walking into the cafe-like set up of Sone Anandpara’s new short play “Serving Brulee”. Greeted with a room full of circular tables rather than the traditional house set up led me to believe that this was going to be a unique theatrical experience. Unfortunately, while the setup and ideas of “Serving Brulee” were interesting, I found myself wanting more out of their execution.
The show takes place in the studio of a new cooking show hosted by TV personality Lila Das (Played by Anandpara) as she guides her special guest, graduate student Michelle Stiles (Played by Ivy Hong), in making the “perfect brulee”. They both learn very quickly that achieving perfection both in themselves and in the brulee may be harder than they realized.
Using something like making the perfect brulee as a metaphor for how women in society are expected to make themselves “perfect” and going into the difficulties in achieving that is a very interesting and relevant idea. Though, as each metaphor was presented, I found myself losing track of what represented what. Each compelling idea that was presented was only given the smallest amount of stage time, not giving it any time to marinate in our minds and really make us think about it.
Humor is a very good way of sneaking tough topics into the minds of audiences without them realizing it. Though in “Serving Brulee”, it felt as though the ideas were being interrupted by the humor, as if we needed to move on as quickly as we could from this metaphor to make room for the next joke. This setup made it hard for me to really enjoy the joke or the metaphor. Though, I will say that Hong as the enthusiastic Michelle Stiles did get some laughs out of me for her bombastic personality and often pretty well placed comedic timing. Anandpara, however, gave a softness to Lila Das that seemed out of place for a T.V personality.
Telling a story about the unrealistic expectations of perfection through the lense of daytime television, an unapologetically plastic-perfect medium, is a brilliant concept. Though, I found myself wishing that “Serving Brulee” would take the time to lean into that concept a little more, peel back on the jokes, letting them come from a place of truth rather than absurdity, and leave us wanting seconds.
Serving Brulee
“Serving Brulee” stars Sone Anandpara, Ivy Hong, and Emma Cavalier.
It is directed by Chelsea B. Lockie, stage managed by Claudia Toth, and features lighting design by Rachel Zimmerman.
“Serving Brulee” is running at FringeNYC 2018 (Fringe Hub 685 Washington Street at Charles Street) for one more performance Wednesday October 24 at 9PM. Tickets are $22. For more information visit www.fringenyc.org.