Review: Kitchen Underwear (The Bread & Roses Theatre)

Review by Sophie Wilby

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Following runs at both Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 and more recently, Brighton Fringe just a few weeks ago, Kitchen Underwear is celebrating its London debut at the Bread and Roses Theatre. A two-hander by writers and stars Maria Goikhberg and Kate Stamoulis Kitchen Underwear tells the story of roommates, turned friends, Ash (Kate Stamoulis) and Zee (Maria Goikhberg). As they enjoy their cozy life in their small Edinburgh apartment, questions as to the true nature of their relationship begin to emerge - is this just a friendship, or something more? Told over a year through a mixture of monologue diary entries and two-way conversations, Ash and Zee experience all the highs and lows of love and relationships both together and apart. 

Zee, who has a more reserved, quiet disposition and works as a poetry translator is recovering from a recent break-up with her long-term girlfriend. Ash, on the other hand, has a more outgoing, open disposition and currently works as a barista, though has ambitions of working with poetry herself. At the beginning of the play, we see her questioning her sexuality and being encouraged by Zee to conduct ‘research’ to help her resolve this question. Much of their interactions during conversations like this take place in their kitchen where Ash has decided to hang her own modern art piece - a washing line of underwear. She uses this as a repeated metaphor for sharing their feelings and being open with their ‘insides on the outside’. Though initially hesitant, Zee similarly adopts this metaphor, allowing for the two to have refreshingly frank, open conversations whilst admittedly still struggling to effectively communicate their feelings. 

Similarly, the use of tarot cards becomes an almost metaphor for the story itself. One of the opening scenes of the play involves Ash using tarot cards to help her decide her destiny. This serves to frame the play, showing the audience what they can expect from the story. Namely, in her present, the ‘Two of Cups’ suggests that she will make a harmonious, loving connection with a friend or potential partner and that in her future, the ‘Death’ card signifies transformation, embracing change, and letting go. From the onset then, the audience can sit back and witness how these predictions come to fruition - even if this isn’t something that the characters themselves reference.  

Goikhberg and Stamoulis are both clearly accomplished writers, and their ability to write natural and realistic dialogues is something to be applauded. Humour too, is littered throughout their writing both within the diary entries and two-way conversations leaving the audience s-knicker-ing (I couldn’t help myself). The strength in their writing is particularly shown through the diary entries, where they successfully summarise feelings that can often be difficult to express, such as heartbreak. 

The diary entries themselves serve to give the audience greater insight into the characters, helping us to understand their perspective on the situations that are discussed more broadly between the two characters. With a brief (get it?) runtime of 60 minutes, this is a quick and clever technique to help the audience engage with the characters, although there remain some questions over motivations, particularly towards the end of the play that would perhaps have been better understood if the depth of these two characters were fleshed out in greater detail. 

Both Goikhberg and Stamoulis are similarly accomplished performers too. Confident when commanding the stage alone and comfortable when engaging with one another. Their delivery of the dialogue supported the naturalistic feel, so that in conjunction, this felt like a very tangible, real story. Their performance and writing were supported by the direction of Becca Donley who can be particularly celebrated for making use of the audience space to set the scene of a poetry reading in a more immersive, interesting way. 

Ultimately, Goikhberg and Stamoulis are both clearly passionate about theatre with the talent to match. Though Kitchen Underwear isn’t exactly groundbreaking though of course, it doesn’t have to be - there is merit in a simple story well told and this light and familiar tale of exploring sexuality and searching for love in your early twenties is an example of that. Kitchen Underwear is short but sweet, and an all-around pleasant way to spend an hour that is far from pants. 

Kitchen Underwear plays at The Bread and Roses Theatre until June 8th

For tickets and information visit https://www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/whats-on.html

To keep up with future productions, more information about Hey Thanks! Theare Collective can be found at https://www.heythankstheatrecollective.com/

Photos used are from a previous Fringe run