The Cook by Eduardo Machado, at Intar 53 from 11 Nov 2003

Mon 13 Oct 2003 The Cook by Eduardo Machado, at Intar 53 from 11 Nov 2003 The Cook by Eduardo Machado, will open at Intar 53 (Hispanic American Arts Center) 20 Nov 2003, following previews from 11 Nov, and booking to 21 Dec 2003. The cast includes: Zabryna Guevara, Jason Madera, Jason Quarles, Nilaja Sun, Monica Steuer. It is directed by Michael John Garces, designed by Antje Ellerman, lighting by Kirk Bookman , with costumes by Elizabeth Hope Clancy. It is produced by Hispanic American Arts Center / AT&T:OnStage, administered by Theatre Communications Group. The Cook takes place in the luxurious kitchen of a mansion in Havana over the course of four tumultuous decades, as seen from the point of view of Gladys, the cook. The play begins as Batista flees Cuba and Castro enters Havana. When the mistress of the house flees to New York, Gladys promises to remain behind as the caretaker. Time passes as she and her husband live there and raise a family, but she is always true to her pledge, even though this is a difficult position to take in Communist Cuba. When the mistress' daughter finally returns to see her family's old home in 1997, it turns out that the family can barely remember the cook and regards her as an illegitimate usurper of their property. Gladys, caught between two irreconcilable worlds, decides to claim the place, finally, as her own.