COOK YOUR LIFE Bravo Theatre Those who have heard of actress May Chan Wai-sum will probably be aware of the sacrifice she made for her 2010 production Fat Pig . Chan overate and gained almost 18kg to play an oversized woman looking for a man who will love her as she is. She put on the weight to make her portrayal of the character more convincing, but stopped when her back began to hurt due to the extra weight. Knowing when to put a stop to an obsession is important, says Chan, and that is what inspired her to create Cook Your Life , her first solo show. While you may have seen her cooking tutorials on YouTube's "MayMay Cooking Channel", in this romantic comedy the audience can watch her in action, and smell and taste her dishes. Home-made soup is prepared for everyone before they enter the theatre, where Chan shows off her cooking skills on stage, and shares her food, as well as her personal take on love and relationships through a love story between two restaurateurs. Dubbed a multisensory "4-D show", in which Chan takes up multiple roles as the producer, writer, director and actress, Cook Your life revolves around a woman who twists her own taste to accommodate her boyfriend's preference for spicy food. "Spicy is not a taste, it's a sense of pain," says the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts graduate, who joined Bravo Theatre as artistic director in 2003. "But just like cigarettes or alcohol, people yearn for more and turn a blind eye towards their negative effects, or the real problems behind the indulgences." The woman becomes more and more tolerant to heat - and the problems in their relationship - until she becomes numb to the sensation altogether. This prompts her to rethink the relationship, and face issues arising from their incompatibility that she had been avoiding by being submissive. "When I wrote the script, I revisited my own past experiences, and I wanted to remind people that they should always be true to themselves. I want everyone to be independent and, as the title suggests, take charge of their own life," says Chan. vanessa.yung@scmp.com McAulay Studio, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Rd, Wan Chai, January 10-12, 16-19, 8pm, January 11-12, 18-19, 3pm In Cantonese HK$240 Urbtix. Inquiries: 3172 1780
