La Societa Italiana is the true story of Rina Codognotto and her Italian family’s Melbourne city restaurant at the outbreak of WWII and how the very culture that saved them from crushing poverty and oppression only decades before, now segregate, arrest and intern them; a visceral, epic family saga that bursts through the confines of 20th Century Melbourne history and relinquishes it’s secrets to a new generation.
“This production (Behind The Play by Marita Wilcox) Is great fun. It is loud, fast, funny, energetic and raucous…’Behind The Play’ is a well constructed play with action aplenty and a good mixture of comedy and poignancy…”
-In-press Fiona Scott Norman.
“This luminous, accessible production from Peta Hanrahan captures the beauty of Woolf’s prose and the complexity of her ideas.”
– The Age Cameron Woodhead
(on A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf).
★ ★ ★ ★
Trigger Warning: Conversation about Rape/ Course language (Italian)
Written By: Marita Wilcox
Dramaturged and Directed by: Peta Hanrahan
Cast: Marissa O’Reilly – Artemis Ioannidis – Dominic Weintraub – Helen Hopkins – Carolyn Bock – Brianagh Curran – Tony Nikolokopolous – Gabriel Partington- Josh Massarotti – Kevin Hopkins – Sebastian Lamour – Samantha Kennedy – James Singleton – Christian Taylor
Photograph origin: Marita Wilcox
Image Design: Peta Hanrahan
Image software facilitation: Adrian Prosen & Karen Wilson.
Producers note: Many members of the cast and creative team are in fact of strong Italian heritage, but due to the Western tradition of female spouses taking their husbands name, their heritage and the heritage of their children has been masked. This work is a true story that belongs to the Codognotto Italian family line, irrespective of their salutational title, and their cultural choices in relation to this work are final.
Access Information:
Visual Rating: Below 50%
This event is partly subtitled or includes dialogue, background music and/or sounds, so d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences can have some engagement with the event.
Aural Rating: 100%
Entirely sound-based with no visual elements and can be fully experienced by blind or low vision audiences.