Review: Julia Cho's AUBERGINE Explores The Connection Between Food And Emotions

From Thanksgiving turkey to roasted corn on the 4th of July to a slice of birthday cake, we grow up associating food with familial bonding and the gathering of loved ones. When we seek a romantic partner, eating together becomes an important part of the mating ritual and when tragedy strikes, we offer food as comfort.

Julia Cho's Aubergine, a light drama full of sweetness and warmth, explores that connection between food and emotions in a tale about a chef who, in the midst of tragedy, seems to have lost his magical knack for making things better with his culinary creations.

Ray (an excellent Tim Kang) may have inherited his kitchen skills from his paternal grandmother from Korea, who he never knew. His father Jung-Sok (Stephen Park), merely saw food as sustenance and cooking as women's work, never encouraging his son's chosen career.

As the story begins, Jung-Sok lies unconscious in a hospital room, dying of cirrhosis of the liver. With nothing more to be done, Ray agrees to have his father sent home, his bed transported to his dining room.

The cheerful and philosophical hospice nurse Lucien (Michael Potts), a refugee from an unspecified country, helps Ray adjust to the realities of waiting for a loved one to die. The play gets its title from Lucien's description of the variety of eggplant from his homeland.

With the help of his ex-girlfriend Cornelia (Sue Jean Kim), who speaks Korean, Ray breaks the news to his overseas uncle (Joseph Steven Yang) by phone and is soon surprised when the man shows up at his home insisting that his nephew prepare a special Korean turtle soup called mugook,

Long ago, Jung-Sok's mother served him mugook so exquisite that it made him reconsider his plan to go away to America. If Ray can replicate its exquisiteness, perhaps something in his father will reconsider dying.

Between scenes, the characters take turns individually addressing the audience with monologues describing life experiences especially associated with food, the best of which is spoken by the captivating Jessica Love who opens the play as a self-described foodie with a loving remembrance of a certain pastrami sandwich.

While the subject of death is always present, Cho and director Kate Whoriskey do a fine job of sustaining a sense of comfort and humor throughout the two acts. Aubergine may make you hungry for a post-performance snack, but it's certainly satisfying theatre.