{"id":469171,"date":"2026-09-19T16:02:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469171\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T16:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:02:26","slug":"in-the-cook-at-berkeley-rep-revolution-is-in-the-air-and-the-kitchen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469171\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018The Cook\u2019 at Berkeley Rep, revolution is in the air \u2014 and the kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David John Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> | KQED<\/p>\n

\"TwoGisela Ch\u00edpe and Yesenia Iglesias in Eduardo Machado\u2019s \u2018The Cook\u2019 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Credit: Ben Krantz Studio<\/p>\n

Of all the scents that permeate Gladys\u2019 kitchen in Havana on the cusp of 1959, it\u2019s the aroma of revolution that lies thickest.<\/p>\n

In Eduardo Machado\u2019s spellbinding play\u00a0The Cook, now running through Oct. 11 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, tension hangs among the pots and pans. Since age 13, Gladys (Yesenia Iglesias) has spent her days preparing meals for Cuba\u2019s upper crust. In\u00a0The Cook, that means working for a wealthy family which includes mistress Adria (Gisela Ch\u00edpe).\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the action\u2019s onset, Adria\u2019s priority is to ensure everyone sets their watch back an hour to keep 1958 just a hint longer. The fleeing of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista means that the start of 1959 will see Fidel Castro taking over Havana, forcing the rich family to vacate their home and start life anew in Miami.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Cook\u2019 runs through Oct. 11 at Berkeley Rep\u2019s Peet\u2019s Theatre in Berkeley.\u00a0Tickets and more information here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet before her Florida life begins with a million other Cuban exiles, Adria wants to be sure Gladys will care for the house until she returns, a promise Gladys accepts without reservation. Later, over the course of three powerful scenes that take place in the early 1970s and late 1990s, we see Gladys shed her servant\u2019s uniform for the period clothing stemming from Adria\u2019s bougie closet, sharply designed by Toni-Leslie James.<\/p>\n

On a typically magnificent set from scenic designer Tanya Orellana, director David Mendizabal\u2019s tight and focused direction utilizes plenty of tension. Machado\u2019s writing, while bold, can also feel thinly staccato and uneven, undercutting some of the bigger payoffs the play requires. Still, there\u2019s a quiet power in his words, which never feel overwhelming despite the volume of exposition and Cuban history that Machado includes.<\/p>\n

Gladys\u2019 husband sees the gleeful side of revolution<\/p>\n

\"\"Yesenia Iglesias and Daniel Duque-Estrada in Eduardo Machado\u2019s \u2018The Cook\u2019 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.\u00a0Credit: Ben Krantz Studio Credit: Ben Krantz Studio<\/p>\n

Much of the tension is set up beautifully at the onset, with three dark-skinned Cubans tasked with preparing food for a massive celebration (the ways that light and dark-skinned Cubans engage and interact fuels the narrative further). Helping in the kitchen is Elena (Georgina Morillo, who plays Gladys\u2019s daughter Rosa in Act Two), barrelling through to express grunty consternation, and Julio (Ashton Mu\u00f1iz), a dutiful helper hiding a secret about his sexuality that threatens \u201cre-education\u201d at one of Cuba\u2019s forced labor camps \u2014 the government\u2019s preferred way of building a more masculine society.<\/p>\n

Gladys\u2019 husband Carlos (Daniel Duque-Estrada) falls toward the gleeful side of revolution, and as the 1970s roll around, it is clear why. Carlos, a lowly chauffeur, is promoted to Minister of Transportation, and he makes it extremely clear he is now a Communist bureaucrat. The transition puts him among the elites, untouchable to many, albeit extremely touchable to his mistress, who bears a love child.<\/p>\n

A highlight of\u00a0The Cook\u00a0is how each character leans into any power they possess, a necessity of consolidation inside Communist Cuba, where the United States\u2019 bruising blockade comes into direct conflict with Russia\u2019s sizable funding of the island. While Carlos can save the lives of Gladys\u2019 family members, he chooses not to, being much more willing to put his thumb on the scale of Marxism to get what he needs and defend Castro\u2019s revolution to the hilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That revolution was never intended for Julio\u2019s participation, which leads to a scorching scene towards the end of the first act. There is sad poetry in Julio\u2019s belief that he be allowed to live and love as he desires, while flying too close to the sun by dating an 18-year-old son of a diplomat. The utter cruelty of Carlos and the stoic resolve of Gladys, in the hands of Duque-Estrada and Iglesias, especially in a critical moment like this, is majestic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That majesty leads to some powerful payoffs in the play\u2019s final frame. While the action of the entire play remains in the expansive kitchen, the quarters have now transitioned into a paladar, a home restaurant which the Cuban government caps to 12 seats, with only family members eligible for employment. Ch\u00edpe as Adria\u2019s daughter Lourdes, chronicling her mother\u2019s history with a simple camera, witnesses the decay of a once regal home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The play belongs to Iglesias in the title role<\/p>\n

\"\"Yesenia Iglesias and Georgina Morillo in Eduardo Machado\u2019s \u2018The Cook\u2019 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.\u00a0Credit: Ben Krantz Studio Credit: Ben Krantz Studio<\/p>\n

Despite Gladys\u2019 loyalty, 40 years of living outside Castro\u2019s Cuba has turned Lourdes\u2019s mother into an enraged expat, and Lourdes uses a racial epithet to express the consternation built from the unspoken tension that existed many years ago. In both roles, Ch\u00edpe is a marvel, with a searing vapidity that leads to some of the play\u2019s funnier moments, while later employing a strategy that advocates for her mother\u2019s legacy of bitterness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the play belongs to Iglesias in the title role, who smartly stays away from clich\u00e9s while playing each iteration of Gladys across a 40-year span. As the affirmation of the house and its proprietorship have shifted, Iglesias\u2019s journey from dutiful to dominant is a wonderful showcase of range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cook\u00a0speaks of a different kind of dictator, one who rules her kitchen with loving dominance while serving hearty portions of moros y cristianos. Although a certain type of Cuban life was denied those closest to this simple cook, her eyes rest on what she believes is a more certain future \u2014 an uncompromising belief that Rosa will see food she crafts on the world\u2019s finest plates, far beyond the surrounding waters within Gladys\u2019s Cuban heart.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bBerkeleyside is a media partner of\u00a0KQED<\/a>, a listener-supported public radio station serving Northern California. Berkeleyside occasionally republishes KQED stories we believe will be of interest to our readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By David John Ch\u00e1vez | KQED Gisela Ch\u00edpe and Yesenia Iglesias in Eduardo Machado\u2019s \u2018The Cook\u2019 at Berkeley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[27336,2633,2465,2466,143,145,144,1058],"class_list":["post-469171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley-repertory-theatre","tag-downtown-berkeley","tag-home-highlight","tag-home-lead","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}