{"id":553705,"date":"2026-03-22T18:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T18:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553705\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T18:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T18:16:10","slug":"edmonton-man-turns-butter-chicken-reviews-into-a-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553705\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton man turns butter chicken reviews into a play"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two years and more than 50 butter chickens later, the story of an Edmonton food reviewer to find the best butter chicken in the city will soon be seen on the theatrical stage.<\/p>\n

It is a surreal moment for Ramneek Singh to adapt his life story from his butter chicken\u00a0reviews\u00a0into a play. Back in November, CityNews brought a story of Ramneek Singh,\u00a0who was searching\u00a0for the best butter chicken in the city. And with his review being adapted into a play, Singh says\u00a0he wants to represent\u00a0the Punjabi culture in a theatrical form.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider it a social responsibility to do this because I don\u2019t think there are many Punjabi plays in the local scene, so hopefully this fills the void and encourages others to do the same thing,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ramneek Singh standing beside the grill in November 2025. (Leo Cruzat, CityNews)<\/p>\n

The story is not just about his review of the dish, but exploring his coming of age as a Mill Wood\u2019s resident and as a Punjabi. It will be a one-man show with Ramneek as the actor and the playwright himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to a point where you\u2019re like 40, and you\u2019re facing this grinding ache of assimilation, and you want to be accepted by Western society, and once you do and once you\u2019re successful in life, you get to this midlife crisis point where you go back to your roots,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n

A theatre researcher and advisor helped with the writing of the play. Collin Doyle followed Singh\u2019s review for two years and was inspired to create a story out of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve created an arc of the story. So at the beginning of the story, someone asked Ramneek where he\u2019s from originally, and by the end of the play, Ramneek has answered to that,\u201d said Doyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Ramneek\u2019s food reviews as they went. They were so well written that I would get caught up in them, and they went from being about butter chicken to being about him exploring his life in Mill Woods, I think. And I just found it engaging, and so I was like, I think this could be a play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Collin Doyle (middle) with Ramneek Singh (right) in a theater. (Leo Cruzat, CityNews) <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re testing out the material, see how the audience responds, and you\u2019re going to see it. I wouldn\u2019t say, and it\u2019s rawest form, but as it\u2019s developing, it\u2019s a work in progress,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n

The play will be featured at the Springboard Festival at the Workshop West Playwright Theatre on Friday, hoping to be featured at this year\u2019s Fringe Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After two years and more than 50 butter chickens later, the story of an Edmonton food reviewer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-553705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}