How to Use a Knife (Interact Theatre Company, Philadelphia) by Will Snider
There are few people that I would rather see gracing a stage anywhere than Philadelphia’s Scott Greer. In this astonishing production he plays George, an alcoholic chef trying to patch his broken life back together in the kitchen of a burger and chop joint owned by one of his former employees. The superstar years with their glories, rewards and excesses have exacted a toll which, though visible, will remain unknown until later in the play.
George’s kitchen family is comprised of two bantering, irreverent Hispanic cooks; a wry and knowing Carlos (a wonderful J. Hernandez) and the exuberant Miguel (beautifully done by Angel Sigala). The much put-upon runner, Jack (Trevor William Fayle), is just marking time until a job that suits his fancy degree presents itself and can’t understand George’s maniacal need for perfection in this third-rate joint. Rounding out this dysfunctional group are the silent dishwasher, Steve (a revelatory Lindsay Smiling) and the goofy owner, Michael (Jered McLenigan), who just wants peace in the kitchen, to make money and to have some fun.
When George’s inability to control his volcanic temper immediately threatens the kitchen’s fragile balance, Steve breaks his silence (to the astonishment of everyone who has been working with him) and offers to teach George how to calm himself. In exchange, he would like to learn how to cook as his father once did. Thus begins an unlikely friendship with George learning how to manage the feelings raging in him like a tsunami and Steve learning how to use a knife.
Steve’s friendship becomes an anchor for George and their mutual revelations over after-hours cooking sessions drew gasps from the audience.
The appearance of INS agent, Kim (Maria Konstantinidis) sends the entire kitchen into an uproar. Though Carlos fears for the illegal Miguel, who supports a wife and children with his job, Kim isn’t interested in deporting anyone; she has bigger fish to fry. Kim is searching for an African war lord whose atrocities she has taken personally.
George, initially, tries to deny, even to himself, that Steve, the one person with whom he feels a kinship, might be the man Kim is looking for.
The questions that 'Knife’ asks are both personal and universal. Is a person only the sum of the mistakes they have made and the horrors they have perpetrated? Is it possible to do horrible things in the name of the greater good? And, perhaps most importantly, is it possible to truly forgive ourselves and move forward?
A touching, funny and truly moving story about what it means to be human, How to Use a Knife cuts deeply.