The Cook

INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center presents the world premiere of Eduardo Machado’s The Cook, directed by Michael John Garces. The play 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. It 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.