'Rachael's Cafe' in Brighton - Reviews

The Argus

Friendly, mini-skirted Rachael spends her days serving home-cooked food and tea in the cafe she owns in Bloomington, Indiana. But her life isn't as straightforwards as it sounds - because Rachael was born Eric. 

This one-hour solo show comes to the Brighton Fringe after a successful run at last year’s Edinburgh Festival. British writer and director Lucy Danser met Rachael’s real-life counterpart while studying at Indiana University. Rachael’s Cafe is based in part on their conversations.

It explores issues of transgender identity and discrimination in a thoughtful and funny way but doesn't define Rachael by them. As she frets over whether to go to her daughter's soccer ceremony as Eric or herself, we hear about her Methodist upbringing, how she met her ex-wife, and her cack-handedness with computers. 

Graham Elwell brings serenity and vulnerability to the statuesque Rachael as she wipes down tables and, at one point, hands out cookies to the audience. A brightly coloured set, full of knick-knacks, evokes a café that is both her triumph and her refuge from the outside world.

Danser uses Rachael’s decision to out herself as a way of looking at the complex ripple effect one person’s actions creates in a close-knit community. It has estranged her teenage son but prompted financial backing for the café from an otherwise hard-line conservative.

Sometimes the play gets tangled up in its determination to be fair to every perspective it introduces. But we never lose the authenticity of Rachael’s voice, thanks to Elwell’s performance and Danser’s understated writing in this sensitive, quietly moving production.

The Latest

The owner of Rachael’s Cafe, Eric, a conflicted cross-dresser who yearns for full gender reassignment tells us her story as she closes up for the night and prepares to leave for an important school function with Naomi (his/her ex) and their three kids. Lucy Danser’s debut play is something of a tour de force. The writing is pitch-perfect and deftly tackles the themes of identity, longing, and acceptance without ever descending into the mawkish or the preachy. Rachael (based on a real person) is brought beautifully by to life by Graham Elwell in a bravura performance packed with subtlety and charm. A small gem of a play. Go see it.

The Marlborough,

15 May

Rating: Gary Mepsted

GScene

“You can be what you want to be”, is the basis for Rachael's Cafe, the heart-warming true story of the real-life American cafe and its transgender owner, the play's focal point, Rachael.

Told in monologue by actor Graham Elwell, there are fearful tales of discovery, heart-warming stories of family acceptance and hope for the future, whatever that may bring. Each account, based on interviews conducted with Rachael herself by writer and director Lucy Danser, varies from soft-humour to the genuinely touching. By refraining from over seasoning the natural quality of the material Lucy displays director's restraint seldom seen.Rachael's cafe, an oasis of inclusivity, “must work” to justify the life-changing course of her life prior to its opening. Its motto“Everyone Welcome, No Exceptions” is refreshing in an often exclusive LGBT scene: gay, straight, blue or purple you'll be welcomed with open arms, a smile and a warm cup of coffee.This is a subtle piece of sincere naturalistic theatre with superfluous trimmings, artistic over-indulgence and histrionic operatic ambitions replaced by hushed tones and respect for the very personal subject matter that will open the eyes, or be strikingly similar to the lives of many of you out there.

Fringe Review

This show is based on real-life Rachael Jones, once Eric, who runs a café in Bloomington, Indiana. As such, it is a kind of documentary, but the story is told in such a way that makes it a significant theatrical work in its own right.

Rachael chats to the audience while clearing up the café and preparing to leave for a family event. The significance of this event and what she will wear to it assume more importance as we gain insight into her life. Telephone conversations inject tension, as these are immediate, and provide a contrast with the more reflective relation of her past experiences. Some of these experiences happened years before, while others are more recent and Rachael is only just beginning to realise their importance. Her thought processes have direct consequences regarding what she decides to do at the end of the play. Although simply summarised as the story of a transformation, Rachael has not yet reached the end of her journey.

We may not see the most overtly dramatic moments of Rachael’s story directly depicted here – she tells us about those - but the choice to focus on a smaller family dilemma is just right for the purposes of the play. Normal, everyday occasions have become fraught with meaning and the potential for social embarrassment. Graham Elwell as Rachael convincingly portrays a person juggling society’s arbitrary demands with the need for personal integrity. He adeptly reveals many facets of the same character – the solicitous waitress concerned about the audience, and the exasperated father talking to his wayward son. Running through this performance is an air of polite consideration, but also of strength.

Theatrically, there are a few light touches in keeping with the rest of the play – the audience gets cookies (always a crowd-pleaser at the Fringe). Although Rachael is not a drag queen as she wishes to live as a woman full time, the traditional device of the drag act removing their wig and make up is used here to great visual and emotional effect.

One day, this play may be seen as a period piece as it is to be hoped that in the future Rachael would not encounter the same prejudices. However, it will still be of interest historically, and also as a character study. How do we grow and change while maintaining existing relationships? Rachael’s Cafe is a compelling portrayal of an ordinary person in an unusual situation, trying to do what is right.

Reviewed by Lucy Nordberg 15th May 2012

Whatonstage
WOS Rating: 

We enter Rachael's cafe at its closing time and are warmly greeted by the café’s owner, Rachael Graham Elwell, who is busy clearing up after a hectic day at this inclusive cafe in Bloomington, Indiana.

Rachael was, at one time in her past, Eric Wininger, a toner salesman, who now desperately wants to be at least "passable" as a woman, but he can't afford a sex change and doesn't want to be "stuck half way between" because of the various hormone treatments.

As we begin to warm to Rachael, she gently begins to tell us of how this inclusive cafe came to be established. Having been married and also fathered three children, Rachael found herself asking for a divorce from Naomie, with whom she is now very good friends.

Obviously the situation meant a massive upheaval for the family but, after a period of understandable confusion, the children, except for their son Todd, begin the process of accepting the man who was their father, as Rachael.

An incident with a bigoted Texan at the start of this short biography leads Rachael to explain the purpose of this cafe. "This isn't an LGBT café”, she says, “Everyone is welcome here. No exceptions."  During the course of the one-hour play, Rachael receives frequent phone calls from her children and from her ex-wife, offering us the opportunity to get introduced to just some of the many problems that her cross dressing is causing to the family.

Rachael is very convincingly portrayed by Elwell, as a likeable and generous hostess and the production is both humourous and poignant with a strong moral code that says "Everyone is equal"

Many in the audience, myself included, feel slightly uncomfortable as Rachael changes into a suit, removes her wig and scrubs the make up off her face in order to attend a function at her daughter's school but, although this scene is tinged with sadness, her warm effeminate personality shines through, clearly demonstrating that the inside is far more important than the outside.

As we leave the theatre I look back and know that I am very pleased to have met Rachael and to have had an insight into her life.

- by Gail Jay