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Do not let this drama deter you from eating meat

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THE PARK THEATRE in London’s Finsbury Park was opened in 2013. We have seen many productions there and they have all been good to excellent. “The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights”, written by Hannah Doran, is showing until 29 November 2025, is no exception, as we discovered after watching it last night (1 November 2025). A word of warning is owed to vegetarians and vegans: the play is set in the meat cutting room of a family butcher’s shop somewhere in New York City. But do not let this deter you because the main points of the play are not about carving and slicing meat.

In the play, Paula Caffarelli is the owner of Cafarelli & Sons. Her great grandfather, an immigrant from Sicily, founded the firm 100 years ago. She tends to hire people released from prison to work in her cutting room. Three of her employees are ex-convicts and the fourth is an immigrant from Mexico. One of the ex-prisoners, Billy (acted brilliantly by Ash Hunter), must earn to pay his mother’s exorbitant medical fees. David, who used to make a fortune on Wall Street but has fallen on hard times, Is Paula’s senior meat cutter. JD is the Mexican. During the play, Paula takes on a new cutter, T, also recently released from prison. At the beginning of the play, Paula’s staff fool around and take life easily. However, it is not long before Paula’s business begins to suffer economically, and her staff members reveal their personal problems. Things reach a stage where Paula needs to reduce the number of her staff, and some of her cutters begin plotting against the others.

This well-acted, superb play is both entertaining and disturbing, but never uninteresting. As the theatre’s website explained, the play:

“… carves into the dark underbelly of America’s anti-immigration policies and the brutal sacrifices that drive the pursuit of prosperity.”

It adds a note of warning:

“This production contains butchery; references to prison, suicide and illness; discussions of racism & xenophobia. Also contains strong language and references of a sexual nature. Please note, this production does not use real meat.”

The play comes to a tragic end as the characters, to use an appropriate phrase, knife each other in the back. I enjoyed the play, and believe that seeing it would not disturb those who avoid eating meat. However, it might put you off crossing the Atlantic from east to west.

From the stage on London’s Southbank to a screen near you

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WE ARE REGULAR theatregoers. We enjoy live theatre. In some indescribable way watching a live theatre performance engages the viewer to a far greater extent than does watching a cinematographic production (a ‘movie’). During a live theatre performance, the actors seem to physically affect the audience in a way that almost feels physical. Because of this, we have been reluctant to see any of the specially televised live performances of plays being held at the National Theatre on the Southbank.

Well, yesterday evening, 4 September 2025, we bit the bullet and watched a televised, live screening of the play “Inter Alia” by Suzie Miller, which was being performed at the National Theatre that same evening. We had back row seats at the Picture House cinema in Finsbury Park. The cinema has a huge screen and an excellent sound system. Our seats were comfortable.

We were amazed at how wonderful it was watching the televised live production. The camera operators, who were filming the play at the National Theatre whilst we watched it on the screen did a superb job. We watched the play as if through the eyes of someone seated in the best seat in the theatre. We saw what we would have seen had we splashed out for the most expensive seats in the house. The filming was not done from multiple angles, but only as we might have watched it while seated in the theatre. And the most surprising thing was that, unlike in a movie, it felt as if we were as much engaged with the actors as if we had been in the theatre with them.

For less than the price of the cheapest seats in the theatre, we had the best view of the play and were able to hear every word perfectly. Apparently, we were not alone. The cinema was full, and while we were watching, the same show was being watched in about 600 cinemas in the UK, and would later be available worldwide. Our first experience of National Theatre Live, as the televised performance is named, has got us ‘hooked’.