ADELAIDE - Looking for Alibrandi has a prominent place in Australian literary culture and explores the story of Josephine Alibrandi, an Italian-Australian teenager living with her mother Christina in Sydney who experiences what it means to be the daughter of Italian migrants in a society that, at the time, was finally beginning to recognise the value of multiculturalism.
It’s a story about cultural identity, class, intergenerational dynamics and the value of diversity. It’s set during the final year of high school as the 17-year-old protagonist is eager to create her own identity and find her place in the world. The tale sheds light on three generations of women and their experience of being Italian-Australian.
In the cast and production, there are several Italian-Australians, such as director Stephen Nicolazzo. “It’s an immense honour to bring Looking for Alibrandi to Adelaide,” he said.
“[I’m honoured] to have the opportunity to revisit this truly special production with fresh talent on stage, a new audience and thousands of tomatoes.
“Like Josie Alibrandi, I was afraid of being a ‘wog’ in Australia, but everything changed when, as a child, I met this character from Melina Marchetta’s novel,” he shared.
“My favourite thing to do with my mother was to watch the film adaptation and dance around the house to Tintarella di Luna. This story, as for many others, brought my family together and helped me reconcile with my ethnicity.”
Actress Lucia Mastrantone, who was born and raised in Adelaide, is returning from Sydney to play the role of Josephine’s mother, Christina.
Mastrantone has a successful career in theatre, film, television, voice acting and theatre production, and she too feels honoured to be a part of this new play.
In the 1990s, Mastrantone too was a young Italian-Australian who, as she recounts, experienced the cultural revolution of that time, when the government began to accept dual citizenships and university was free.
“In the ‘90s I was at university,” recalled Mastrantone, “and I remember that finally we had a voice, not just as women, but also as daughters of immigrants.
“I personally experienced a monumental shift.”
For the Italian community and her family, the decision to become an actress at that time was not well accepted. It was almost a source of shame, because it would lead her to travel the world, likely preventing her from starting a family of her own - a fundamental value in the Italian-Australian culture of the time.
Because of this conflict with her family, Mastrantone decided to leave Adelaide. It was the discovery of Melina Marchetta’s novel that was revealing and liberating for her.
“A friend of mine, who saw how down I was, suggested I read the novel, convinced it would help me understand the importance of maintaining one’s original traditions and how to harmonise them with the drive for self-realisation and the change I felt so strongly inside me,” Mastrantone shared.
Mastrantone identified strongly with Josephine, but now that she will play her mother, Christina, she’ll have the opportunity to contemplate more deeply the world from which her mother came.
“Josephine’s mother belongs to the generation that couldn’t go to school or university, that had to follow the rules of their culture, especially those regarding marriage and family,” Mastrantone explained.
Playing this character helped her reconnect with her mother and develop a more profound understanding of her point of view.
“The story I’m telling is my story and that of my mother who, unlike me, couldn’t follow her passions,” added Mastrantone, who still remembers how at school one wasn’t allowed to speak Italian in public, “so as not to seem too Italian”.
The actress is confident that many will see themselves in the characters of the play and make peace with the conflicting feelings of their youth. Looking for Alibrandi will be on stage at the Dunstan Playhouse from May 22 to 31.
