By Ruth
Ross
When
I reviewed My Italy Story in 2006 for its New Jersey Regional Premiere
at 12 Miles West Theatre, I referenced Leo Tolstoy’s quote in Anna Karenina that “All happy families
are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” noting that it was
obvious that he had never met large, contentious Italian families like the one
that populates Joseph Gallo’s play.
Well,
here we are 18 years later, just in time for Italian Heritage Month, and the American Theater Group’s production of My
Italy resonates in another way, centered as it is around genealogy, a hobby
that bloomed during the pandemic lockdown when it seemed that everyone was
taking DNA tests and building family trees!
In
this nostalgic one-man show, Michael Notardonato brings to life a crowd of
colorful family members and other people Thomas DaGato meets as he embarks upon
an odyssey to Vallata, their ancestral Italian town, to heal an 18-year rift in
his boisterous, brawling family.
As
Tommy attempts to plumb the depths of familial dysfunction to discover the
reason for the rift that has resulted in a silence of 18 years between Aunt Florence
and Uncle Rudy and their respective families, he presents glimpses of his own
family and his role in it: as his grandma’s spaghetti taster, his sister’s
antagonist on the family’s weekly trips to the New Jersey shore, a new uncle expressing
joy at the birth of his nephew and a son dismayed his mother’s reticence to
show him family photos she has kept locked away.
His
trip to the family village is especially droll (his account of a bus trip up a
mountain on a single lane road is especially hilarious) yet bittersweet (his
reunion with his grandfather’s brothers and his cousin Gerardo). “Go to
Avellino and ask” becomes a metaphor for travel—through landscape and time.
Director
Charlotte Cohn elicits a tour de force performance from young
Notardonato and keeps the action moving to an inexorable conclusion. Paul
Hudson’s atmospheric lighting conveys the passage of time and place; Travis
Joseph Wright’s superb sound design enhances the production.
So,
it was good to see that Joseph Gallo’s family saga, My Italy Story, has
stood the test of time. Large, ethnic families are similar and different;
that this one is Italian doesn’t matter. I am sure the dysfunction and love
resonated with many in the audience, regardless of ethnic background.
If you love relatable theater and revel in smart writing and superb performance, you won’t want to miss My Italy Story. It will be performed at Hamilton Stage, 360 Hamilton Street, in Rahway, through October 27, and then at the Sieminski Theater, 8000 Fellowship Road, in Basking Ridge, November 1-3, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 PM. Select a showtime and purchase tickets HERE.
Photos by Lianne Schoenwiesner, Spotlights Photography.