Food gets complicated at Writers/Timeline

Madhuri Shekar’s world premiere play Dhaba on Devon now on at Writer’s Theatre in Glencoe is Death of a Salesman meets The Bear.  A collaboration between Timeline Theatre and Writer’s, it overlays the complexity of family ties with an immigration story and weaves it all together with the power of the foodways that bring you home. It’s also a local tale that hints at the economic issues of Chicago’s ever evolving ethnic neighborhoods. 

Rita Madhwani, played by the complex Tina Muňoz Pandya, is the youngest daughter of Sindhi restaurant owner Neeraj Madhwani, played with heart and passion by Anish Jethmalani, who has begun to suffer from Parkinson’s and is stepping back. Rita has been working at the restaurant since she was 13 and is set to take over but Neeraj insists her cooking is not up to ethnic par.. Rita has recently begun a relationship with line cook Luz Fuentes played by the strong and funny Isa Arciniegas and she is experimenting with new fusion recipes creating massive disagreements with her father.  The restaurant is going into foreclosure and corporate sister Sindu, played by the glamorous Arya Daire, has flown in to try to help. There is generational trauma from the family's immigration story born of partition, there is grief: the mom who was the linchpin of the family has died. And there is the perennial strife of a new generation stepping into its prime. It is a story that has played out across America, especially in the food industry where Mom and Pop establishments can anchor an extended family in assimilating to the now damaged promise of America. Food is identity in our melting pot culture, and it is a way of understanding each other. 

This is a beautifully written play, taking on so many of our current issues, and director Chay Yew keeps it easily understood and grounded even as everyone's story gets more deeply layered. It is fair to everyone’s point of view: one feels for a man who is losing all of his physical abilities in a world changing far too quickly as well as for the daughters who need to make their own ways.   The ensemble works seamlessly to make us cheer these characters on. The descriptions of food with one exception will make you very hungry and I highly recommend the chai available at the bar.  It is a deep, thoughtful evening of theatre that needs to be seen. 

Dhaba on Devon is playing at Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court in Chicago’s suburb Glencoe, Wednesdays through Sundays through July 27th. For tickets and information go to https://www.writerstheatre.org/events/dhaba-on-devon-avenue

photo by Michael Brosilow

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