Theatre / Reviews
Mayfest 2015 review: Salt in the Sugar Jar
“Hello, welcome to my party.”
Nikesh Shukla greets us warmly at the front door of a house in Totterdown, beckons us inside, politely requests we take our shoes off to follow Gujarati etiquette and offers us a seat in the living room.
Salt in the Sugar Jar is this year’s Mayfest and Theatre Bristol commission and sees Shukla, a novelist by trade, lay himself bare – a Tupperware box found in the back of the freezer containing food cooked by his mother who has just died being the spark of a memory needed to talk about him growing up with his extended family.
Shukla cooks too during the show, even roping in a couple audience members to help him make chappatis.
The millennial man that he is, his memories are animated gifs in his head, but regardless of what he calls them, I noticed the person sat opposite me in the tightly packed semi-circle of chairs, stools and cushions wipe away floods of tears that were rolling down her face.
Shukla confidently narrates this shortened version of his novella The Time Machine, adeptly taking us back to his family kitchen in a north London suburb and in particular introducing us to his mother and explaining that when she died he set out on a quest to cook as well as her, food becoming the best way by which to remember her.
Although the narration sometimes felt slightly forced, Shukla was more at ease when he was ad-libbing, and he had the room completely enraptured as the more raw emotions of his mother were calmly spilled.
By the end of an hour it really felt like we were a group of friends at a party in this skillful journey through one man’s memories.
Salt in the Sugar Jar is showing until May 24. For more information, visit www.mayfestbristol.co.uk/mayfest2015/salt-in-the-sugar-jar-2/