Nigel Slater's Toast by Henry Filloux-Bennett

Friends of Peterhouse Theatre

A young Nigel describes childhood in Wolverhampton, existing between his father's untreated rage and his mother's crap cooking - wrecked meals are often replaced (lovingly) with wedges of black, burnt toast. From Pyrex plates, to Bisto, to Terry's All Gold and Caramac, Nigel takes on culinary preparation (and a ‘girlish’ home economics class) in the face of teenage calamity: preferring ‘gay’ sweets, his mother’s death, his father's remarriage to the insidious Joan Potter, and the sourness that ensues between them as they fight knife and fork for Mr Slater's affections. A striking young chef at Nigel’s pub job sparks confidence in his queer exploration - when all comes to a head after his father’s passing, Nigel abandons the nightmarish Clayford home, as we leave him on the brink of a very different life at the steps of the Savoy.