Photo by Sokvonny Chhouk
Never has a cooking demonstration gone so off-course. Cooking with Kathryn, an interactive, mostly solo comedic performance by Kate Owens, is indeed a cooking show, except the cook shows up wasted and does not bring any appropriate cooking tools. Directed by Deby Xiadani (who also co-wrote the show with Owens), Cooking with Kathryn is also a birthday party. We’re there ostensibly to celebrate the host’s birthday in the pink-decorated basement of St. Ann’s Church. However, after a few too many drinks, it becomes something so much more.
Kathryn is an adorably awkward, boozy southern belle, the kind of person you just want to say “Oh honey” to in a slightly pitying, slightly exasperated tone at almost everything she does. Case in point: Her demonstration of how to make a margarita is so hilariously off the mark (hint: it involves vodka, a banana, and bacon bits), but you have to laugh because she is so committed to it that you feel like it must be good.
Most of all, Kathryn is a loveable hot mess whose idea of a mimosa is emptying a bottle of whiskey (aka “mimosa mix”) into a cup with a splash of La Croix (aka “La Crocs”). Her ridiculousness is demonstrated best by a clownish attempt to put on makeup, applying way too much blush and misapplying eyeliner while trying to make a cat eye. Evidently, it gets real hard to put on your face when you’re plastered.
The show takes a turn when Kathryn invites a “friend” from the audience–her crush Jeremy (played by a random audience member)–onto the stage to help her open up birthday presents. Soon enough, more audience members get coaxed onstage to allow the zany story to play out.
Owens has created a pretty kooky character who is a jumble of contradictions: as sweet as she is judgemental, as conservative as she is flirty. A devout Christian who has no problem getting drunk in a church basement in front of her priest. There’s a complete lack of self-awareness that is often the key to making these types of characters so funny. You want to like her but you can’t stop cringing.
Cooking with Kathryn runs through March 8 at The Kraine Theater as part of the FRIGID Festival.