Nigel Slater’s Toast
Why Watch Nigel Slater’s Toast
Set to feature at the Other Palace from 3 April this year, Nigel Slater’s Toast is straight out of a successful display at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival. The critically acclaimed memoir of Nigel Slater, which was first released in 2004, has since been adapted for both the big screen and stage. Slater wrote for The Observer Magazine for over a decade and also served as the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly. Recently, his 2018 book titled The Christmas Chronicles bagged the Fortnum and Mason’s Food Book Award.
Perhaps what is most striking about the play is its brutal honesty and its ability to portray the ups and downs of Slater’s life without diluting the perspective that Slater had as a child. A gem belonging to the rare class of ‘food autobiography’, Nigel Slater’s Toast is replete with an assortment of spicy tales, a dash of hot chocolate sauce, and a whole lot of delicious character development.
The Story
The play does not, in any way, attempt to present its protagonist, a young Nigel Slater, as the easygoing and approachable columnist he is today. Starting with the untimely illness and consequent death of Mrs. Slater, the story expertly navigates through all the challenges that Nigel Slater faced as an adolescent. After his mother’s death, Slater’s father marries another woman named Joan. Nigel is forced to eat whatever is put in front of him every day as he battles his stepmother in an attempt to win back his father’s heart.
Misfortune strikes again and Nigel loses his father as well. At no point does the play remotely attempt to explore the motives and emotions of those around Nigel Slater. It presents events as he saw them, resulting in a tremendously honest and vivid journey through the troubled early years of one of Britain’s most renowned food writers.
Good for
Fans of Nigel Slater | Fans of Drama
Critics Reviews
Every episode is keyed to a precise sensory memory, every reference carries with it a Proustian resonance.
– The Guardian