The Kitchen Sink

The most important things to get right are the place and the time. The Kitchen Sink is set in the fading seaside village of Withernsea, East Yorkshire, a few years ago as Martin’s milk delivery float, a risky rival to Tesco, is rapidly running out of business. Director Shane Bosher, with no assistance from the Ensemble’s program, completely nails it.

Bosher works to get accents sounding exactly right and the cramped kitchen, designed by Charles Davis, is packed with the family’s daily doings. Kath (Hannah Waterman) is a school dinner lady, forever experimenting with food in her kitchen, like sushi for Christmas lunch. Martin (Huw Higginson) is lovingly unimpressed (‘I’m a milk man, I do milk man-ly things’), as are Billy (Ben Hall), a gay son who has just been offered a place at a London art college, and daughter Sophie (Contessa Treffone), a formidable ju-jitsu student who returns home having punched her black-belt examiner in the face for calling her ‘feisty’.

Completing the cast is Pete (Duncan Ragg), Sophie’s would-be plumber boyfriend, who can barely make it through the door, so nervous is he. Once in, he hovers round the sink intent on finding the source of a smell. This leads to a wonderful scene where an irate Kath attacks the sink with Pete’s hammer and water spouts everywhere.

Higginson’s 600+ past episodes of The Bill combine with Waterman’s 400+ past episodes of Eastenders. Together they are terrific and a great capture for the Ensemble to make.

Not only are Bosher’s scenes beautifully laid out but the frequent scene changes are also choreographed. A New Zealander with plenty of experience, he has planned his changes to perfection to fit with lights (Alexander Berlage) and movement.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Prudence Upton