Indian play in Manchester to showcase curry cooking

The Kuttu theatre style play combines western-style text and story telling with live Indian cooking at the Library Theatre.

Given Britain's love for Indian cuisine an innovative play, inspired by the Kuttu theatre style of South India, is being staged in Manchester this week. Rani Moorthy, a performer and writer is showcasing her play which combines western-style text and story-telling with live Indian cooking at the Library Theatre.

The interesting form involves Rani actively inviting participation from the audience by asking them to peel, chop, stir and taste and even give recipe suggestions. This Kuttu theatre style will include video extracts filmed in South India, Malaysia and UK.

The cooking, done in real time, is done by the performer and shared among her guests. Curry Theatre lasts only 75 minutes and Rani cooks four dishes. Often in theatres a gas stove has to be replaced by a halogen one due to fire hazards. During her performance in Edinburgh she said: "That isn't quite the same and I have to keep thinking about how long things will take to cook. I can't just add the onions when I feel I should, I have to watch everything and have it all prepared. There's a lot of juggling with my thinking about these things, so I have to concentrate very hard, more than I would do normally." During the process her monologues are delivered by six women, all from different times and places but united by their curries.

She is socialite Mrs Melwani, who has the most sought-after dinner table in Malawi - the Kashmiri chillies that her cross-dressing manservant puts in the curry unleash passions and gossip.

There is the typical British Asian businesswoman, Kalvinder, who cooks curried eggs for her white in-laws. She is a vegan, in whose cooking reality and illusion merge as she imagines her own eggs, her fears of infertility and also the possibility and impossibility of conception.

Mrs Wong is an Indian woman brought up in Mao's China. She is tied to the stove by her eldest son and, bringing up her children in multi-racial Malaysia, she laments to her only companion, the Kitchen God. Then there is the Trinadadian Tamil, Rosemary Kempadoo for whom the blending of spices stirs up the heat of an old relationship. The result: a hot and hellish lamb curry cooked by a woman scorned.

There is of course the slum-dweller Kali who begs for the ingredients to give dignity to her preparation. Then there is Anapurna, the Goddess of Food, like Durga, kiliing demons, bringing victory to the good and cooks the first ever Indian dish to seduce Shiva, the Lord of the Universe.

The theme of the tales is food and power, which according to Rani is used both as a tool of production and of nourishment. She says: "I use curry to uncover character and personality, people's stories and secrets. I hope to show curry as something more than just a Friday night takeaway. For many south Asian women, whose role has traditionally been the provision of food, the quality of her curry is a source of identity and pride, both in the home and in the community."