06-05-2025
Takeaway review — promising ingredients but this restaurant drama is bland
The first dish served in Nathan Powell's tenure as the creative director of Liverpool's Everyman is his own play Takeaway. But service does not run smoothly in this drama, set in a family-run Caribbean restaurant in Liverpool called Hyltons. With a larger-than-life, yellow-walled set designed by Georgia Wilmot, this play has a vividly visual feel. Yet, though the ingredients seem flavourful, the final product fails to satisfy.
A fundamental problem is that most of the actors are inaudible, despite the Everyman being a relatively small theatre. Key dialogue is lost, leaving the audience, for the early scenes, in a fog of confusion. Once our ears adjust to Amanda Huxtable's production, we learn that the takeaway was set up by Carol and her late husband
