Scripts available from Carol Bush: carol.bush@outlook.com / 07968 636437

Questions for the director Belinda Gee: belinda.gee@entec.co.uk / 07768 373866

Lee Hall has written or co-written many films including Billy Elliot, Rocketman, Toast, Victoria and Abdul, War Horse and Cats. He also adapted Billy Elliot for the stage musical and Shakespeare in Love from screenplay to stage play.

The Times claimed that Cooking with Elvis is ‘a work of wonderful bad taste’. And so it is! It’s part knockabout farce, part cookery course, part philosophical investigation. It’s a provocative and outrageously funny look at disability while enjoying the three greatest pleasures in the world – sex, food and Elvis. The play centres on Stuart, a naïve and awkward young man who works at the local baking factory. Stuart is brought home by Mam, a promiscuous, alcoholic, older woman out for a good time and sex. Mam orders him to remove all his clothes: he reluctantly does so, getting down to his underpants, when Mam’s 14-year-old daughter comes in, pushing her Dad in a wheelchair. An odd start to any relationship…

Dad had been an Elvis impersonator who’d dreamed of becoming a tribute act. After a row with his wife, he’d driven off in a temper, been involved in a serious car accident, and is now paraplegic with head trauma. He can’t move or speak but does have one part of his anatomy working – he gets frequent erections. The daughter, Jill, takes solace in spending a lot of her time cooking food that her Dad can’t eat and her Mam doesn’t want to eat, so Jill eats it. There are heated discussions between mother and daughter about Jill’s weight (too much) and Mam’s weight (too little). Stuart moves into the family home and becomes attracted to Jill, who becomes fixated with him. She also gets laid by him. In another scene, Stuart has a serious one-sided conversation with Dad, while helping to alleviate Dad’s erection. There can’t be many situations where a man can move into a house and have sex with all of the inhabitants – can there? Throughout, there are surreal moments depicting Dad’s memories as he gets out of his wheelchair to sing an Elvis song or to speak as if he were the King. Mam and Jill sometimes join in as backing singers. As I said before, this is a very funny play and the sex scenes will be played to raise a laugh, not to shock. Think, if you will, of those scenes in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Madame Bovary. 

The play is set in 1999 in north-east England, with Geordie accents. The cast is two men and 2 women: I’ll work around ages depending on who auditions but they’re written as:

Stuart (late 20s) 

Awkward, naïve, definitely not worldly wise and very impressionable – a real gimp. Must be prepared to strip down to Y-fronts (and maybe even less!). This role was played, superbly, by Frank Skinner in the West End.

Mam (early 40s)

Dresses to kill, in short skirts and tight tops, advertising her wares. She’s foul-mouthed, often a bit drunk, and is very unkind to her daughter.  May join in as a backing singer a couple of times.

Dad (early 40s)

Spends a lot of time in a wheelchair, not moving. Doesn’t sound much of an acting job but I’m reminded of Andy Hill in Dinner – he was the waiter who was ever present but never spoke. He had great reviews. There’s the singing, of course, which will appeal to some – who wouldn’t want to be Elvis?

Jill (14)

Obviously, our actor will need to be older. Jill does eat a lot – her Mam keeps commenting on her weight, and Stuart tells her he likes a woman with some meat on her. Jill introduces each scene, speaking direct to the audience, keeping them up to speed. She also has a lot of food preparation to do as well as being a backing singer, so it’s a busy role.

Rehearsals will probably be Tuesday and Thursday evenings with Sunday morning or afternoon after a few weeks. It will depend, however, on cast and room availability.