Review: THE MEAT KINGS! (INC.) OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS at Park Theatre

First off, let’s give credit where credit is due. Over the past few years, the team at Park Theatre under Exec Director Catherine McKinney, has consistently punched way above its weight as a fringe venue, offering a quite dazzling and varied programme of productions throughout each season and attracting quality playwrights, actors and technicians eager to present work at its two spaces.

So how does the Meat King’s measure up? T (Mithra Malek) is the summer hire at Cafarelli & Sons an iconic NYC butchers, but in a nod to the strain on blue collar American jobs, with the business struggling against increasing competition, owner Paula (Jackie Clune) is under pressure to let someone go at the end of the season. As T and the small team of guys in the store’s back room prepare cuts to fulfil orders and to stock the shop’s front counter, they each present reasons why they should be retained. Before long JD (Marcello Cruz) and Billy (Ash Hunter) are vying with each other for the sole available position. The question is who needs it the most and how will things play out in a tense and pressured space where sharp knives, testosterone, and fiery tempers make for a volatile environment and where arguments can quickly escalate into dangerous and explosive situations. When T is pressured on the pretext of family loyalty by her cousin Billy into sabotaging JD’s chances of securing the job, things get ugly, and allegiances are tested. This is particularly tricky given JD and T appear to have grown close and have started seeing each other outside of work. Everyone has reasons why they really need this job, but with ICE raids increasing and JD’s work visa expired it will only take one phone call to dispense with the competition. After the call is made by David (Eugene McCoy), the raid carried out by masked thugs is so on point as to send shudders down the back. It is certainly redolent of many news reports, media clips, and stories circulating from America at a time when both legitimate citizens and others who are going through the application process are treated with hitherto unwitnessed harshness and lack of due process. It is also reflective of the Nazi policy of informing on friends and neighbours during the War, and changes the entire vibe of the show.

Can we talk about meat? The sheer realness of the on-stage product used in the production’s scenes is enough to make most vegetarians pass out. It really does look bloody, red, sinewy, and as though it lived until very recently. I am reliably told that it is a type of gelatin.

Performed in the round with audience on all sides and butchers' curtains at all entrances and exits, the play’s 5 cast members are all excellent in delivering their very strongly written characters, which run the gamut of personality traits from deceitful and self-pitying, to forthright, optimistic, unambitious, and dependable.

Continues at Park Theatre until 29th November.