Imagine for a moment you hate your partner. You hate them so much that you actually wish them dead. So you do the obvious: you hire a hitman. Except what you don’t know is that they’ve also hired a hitman to kill you…. the same hitman, in fact. This is the setup for Cooked, a student-led dark comedy from the University of St. Andrews, written and directed by Millie Haldane with co-direction from Catherine Barrie.
The unhappy couple in question are Finn (played by Oscar Cooper) and Isabelle (played by Daisy Patterson). Finn is a misogynist and a liar with zero redeeming qualities, and for several years he’s also been having an affair with an eighteen-year-old girl… do the math on that one. Isabelle is a listless stay-at-home-girlfriend without friends or hobbies, and together they make possibly the most miserable and frustrating couple on Earth.
Cooked thus follows Finn and Isabelle as they struggle to deal with the arrival of their incredibly laid-back hitman Pete (Matt McCaffrey) alongside the unexpected houseguests of Finn’s teenage girlfriend Suzie (Sofia Hattiangadi) and a hapless pizza delivery man named Tony (Sam Klein). The action is punctuated by a series of title cards projected onto the backdrop which take us through the absurd, tragic, comedy. McCaffrey as Pete gives a standout performance, captivating every scene he featured in, and Hattiangadi brought an unexpected but welcome level of empathy to her role as a manipulated young woman suddenly put into the strangest of circumstances.
Unfortunately, Cooked never moves past its original premise, circling around the inevitable for a little too long (its listed as a 50-minute show, but my viewing ran more than an hour.) We never quite understand why Finn and Isabelle got together in the first place, and the explanations for why they’ve not split up sooner were hard to follow. The show’s twist ending disappointed rather than surprised. Despite this, however, the production and cast showed immense promise and talent. If you are looking for an absurdist romp through murder and mayhem, Cooked will provide the laughs.
Cooked runs daily at 11:00 through August 27 at the Bedlam Theatre. Tickets are available for purchase here.
Image courtesy of Louise Anderbjörk, provided to The Student as press material.