Jake Mace
Alessandra Gonnella and Miriam Gagino are the duo behind upcoming Voila! Theatre Festival show CHEF, following the story of a once-renowned chef fallen from grace, now cooks in a women’s prison after being convicted of her father’s murder. Based on the original award winning play by Sabrina Mahfouz, the show will now arrive for a one-off performance at Camden’s Etcetera Theatre.
We caught up with Alessandra and Miriam for a pixelated pint to find out more about the process of creating the piece, and what audiences can expect.
You can catch CHEF as part of Voila! Theatre Festival at the Etcetera Theatre on November 3rd at 5pm (55mins). Tickets are available through the Voila! Theatre Festival Online Box Office.
Jake: Hi Alessandra – Chef is described as an intense and searing monologue that aims to raise uncomfortable questions about justice, power and survival. Tell us about the main character and how you came across the story.
Alessandra: Chef tells the story of a woman who once worked in a high-end kitchen and is nowserving time in prison, running the jail’s kitchen. Through her monologue, we witness how food becomes both her art and her means of survival.
I discovered Sabrina Mahfouz’s text through Monica Capuani, who translated it into Italian and introduced it to Miriam Gagino and me while we were seeking a stage project to develop beyond our film and TV backgrounds.
Produced through my London-based company Nervosa Pictures, Chef embodies the company’s mission: to tell stories of complex, underrepresented, and neurotic female voices.
What drew me in was its rhythm, brutality, and unexpected poetry: a story about dignity under pressure and the power to create beauty in the face of condemnation. Though I usually write and watch comedy, I was struck by the protagonist’s resilience and her ability to survive through wit, intelligence, and humor. Even when trapped, she refuses to stop thinking, feeling and cracking a joke.
Miriam: Chef is a story about survival. I connected with it instantly – almost too much. The parallels between her life and my own were so striking that, at first, they scared me. She was facing so many of the experiences I’ve lived through, and the writing was so raw and unflinching that I felt our realities almost merging. I knew I could draw from my own history, and she from mine, to give Chef a voice capable of telling a story about love, pain, agency, and endurance.
I am a survivor at my core, and I understand this character on a visceral level. I didn’t choose this text. It chose me.
Jake: You describe the stage as becoming the ‘protagonist’s battlefield’ – how have you aimed to achieve this in the devising process? How has the process been for you and the actor Miriam Gagino?
Alessandra: We explored several adaptations of Chef in Italy and the UK, which were very different, and I feel we’ve found a strong balance between abstraction and realism. First of all, even though it’s a one woman show, we’ve added a strong male presence playing the male parts in the monologue. The set design, music (by Dimitri Scarlato), sound, and movement create an expressive, almost cinematic space, complemented by practical kitchen elements: one table, two chairs, and a few essential props, with subtle digital visuals (kindly made by Post Production Studio Proxima Milano) reflecting my film background.
Miriam: The stage is a living presence: a battlefield where Chef fights for her own life, retracing the wounds of her past and reclaiming the right to her future. The process has been visceral and demanding, but also fiercely loving and deeply compassionate. Early on, we understood that we needed to give names to the different areas of the stage – to build anchors that could hold me through the pain of the journey.
The table represents cooking – creation . the passion that keeps her alive. It is her sanctuary, her steadiness.The proscenium becomes the realm of thought: where she battles, questions, unravels, and rebuilds her understanding of herself and the world. And the lone chair at the side stands as a stark symbol of justice – stripped bare, unforgiving, yet necessary.
Each space carries its own emotional weight, guiding Chef toward survival and truth.
Jake: What will be the first thing the audience sees, feels, and hears as they enter the space?
Alessandra: A very basic scenery, with a strong rap beat, getting into slam poetry mood. In a super cozy intimate theatre.
Miriam: Discomfort. Passion. Love. Pain.
The burden of choice – containing all of them at once.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
Alessandra Being moved and provoked by the story of Chef means confronting the experience of all those who’ve had to deal with their own pain alone, raised by people who didn’t want to raise them, used by those who never meant to protect them. Despite the confusion and vulnerability of not knowing one’s path, there is still a way to find a calling, to devote oneself to a passion and a purpose: wherever life leads, even when fate seems permanently unkind.
Miriam: Pain doesn’t define you. Neither do the experiences that tried to break you.
You can still choose love. You can still choose to fight.
You can still give your heart freely, even if no one ever showed you how.
Jake: With Voila Festival 2025 just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
Alessandra: We’re thrilled to make our London debut and to have three more performances scheduled in Italy before the end of the year. This marks our first theatre production, performed in two languages, a project that, despite being small, required enormous effort, patience, and collaboration. It was basically the two of us moving mountains. It was made possible thanks to the generosity of the actor friends, producers, and strangers who supported us along the way. A year ago, I couldn’t have imagined debuting a show in Camden — so yes, I’m absolutely freaking excited!
Miriam: The thought of being alone on stage for 50 minutes! It is both exhilarating and terrifying – and that’s precisely why I’m doing it. Fear has always been my cue to move in life.
Jake: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
Alessandra: Negroni Sbagliato. Strong and “Wrong”.
Miriam: Bourbon on the rocks. A nightcap at the end of it all – after the chaos, after the ache. It’s bitter, but the aftertaste reminds you of… freedom.
A reminder, you can catch CHEF as part of Voila! Theatre Festival at the Etcetera Theatre on November 3rd at 5pm (55mins). Tickets are available through the Voila! Theatre Festival Online Box Office.
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