Cooking with Columbus

(1989)

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Theatre Columbus Presents

Cooking with Columbus

Written collaboratively by the Company

  • Director Julie Bishop
  • Performers Leah Cherniak and Martha Ross
  • Set & Lighting DesignerGlenn Davidson
  • Costume DesignerBarabara Russell

The time is 1936, the place is Northern England, a weekend in the country house of the Ashburys. Jane Ashbury dreams of being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, from east to west. Her childhood friend, Nora Duckworth, has flight fantasies that are decidedly more eccentric… The weekend erupts into chaos, as seven characters become more and more entangled with each other; there is a failed sexual betrayal; an outrageous attempt to fly without wings; a mental breakdown prompted by memories of World War I; an ongoing plot to sabotage Jane’s plans to fly across the Atlantic; and finally, there is a seance in which many truths are revealed. Lyrical, luminous, wonderfully theatrical–And Up They Flew is a “serious comedy” about the tensions of the 20th century.

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A female chef stands discussing a dish amongst laughing audience members
Two female chefs are baking, one barking instructions, the other pouring ingredients
Two female chefs in a kitchen, they wear their bras outside their shirts and wear tall chefs hats. One is holding a raw chicken with it's head intact in front of an open oven

Awards and Reviews

1989 Dora Awards – Small Theatre Division

  • Nomination Outstanding Design: Glenn Davidson

“A Madame Benoit parody about the sexy side of cooking. ‘Excite the flour’, Nischtoo is told, which she does. “I don’t think this is rude,” says Cherniak, all wide-eyed and innocent as she rubs flour onto an upright rolling pin. Which it is”

– Robert Crew, The Toronto Star