Review: Crumbs at York Theatre Royal

Wednesday 20th May 2026 at York Theatre Royal (Studio)

⭐️⭐️

Reviewer: Holly Winter

This is an ambitious show from Badapple Theatre’s Kate Bramley who writes and directs, taking aim at influencer culture and the modern grind of seeking audiences and attention. Crumbs is a one woman multi-rolling fest, telling the story of an ex TV-chef cum food influencer whose secrets are beginning to surface while she spirals manically in front of us.

Ellen Carnazza has impressive energy as Petronella Parfait, a larger-than-life, brassy, bold, loud, boisterous, over-confident, ego-centric self-congratulator. While Carnazza plays the role well, given that it’s obviously supposed to be an overblown caricature, it doesn’t necessarily mean the show itself hits the spot. You see, Parfait’s inflated characterisation is just too much. It’s too full-on, too in-yer-face and for too much of the time. I wanted nuance! I wanted light and shade! I wanted a journey! But I got a free-for-all where sterner, sharper direction was needed. There’s so much potential in this play and it has such a great story, it just needs a much more controlled approach.

What am I trying to say here? For me, we don’t need wild scribbles for the entire show and every character. We needed more colouring inside the lines. Accents just don’t cut it when the general tone is mercilessly heightened. And this impacts not just on frayed nerves, but the writing itself because whilst I caught some great zippy one-liners and got the gist of plentiful food puns, the character herself was so breathless and manic that I lost a lot of the script anyway… 

The multi-roling element is quite well done, with swift pace and deft movement from Carnazza as she becomes a range of Parfait’s conspiring enemies. The weakest of these is a too-close-to-the-original mother, and the best is a tongue-in-cheek take on the threatening “heavy” that is Big Tony. It’s a kind of Vengaboys approach to lighting from Duncan Hands as we move between roles though: “Up” (phone rings, short scene) “and down” (lights drop so Carnazza can take up her next brief role)… “Up. And down. Up. And down…” It’s fine in that it’s functional, but it does get repetitive and I have to say in the end I found the constant phone ringing irritating. What I loved though was the on-stage baking (definitely a good shout in getting the senses tingling) and some of the later moments which did offer some clearer variety. 

Crumbs is a lively, chaotic comedy featuring good pace and dead-pan zingers. Would I like to see this performer again? Yes. She’s impressive and does well with what she has, but she’s been let down by direction that has allowed her to flail and wail without enough guidance towards quieter moments and nuanced characters. 

Crumbs is at York Theatre Royal until May 23rd 2026, You can find tickets here.