Theatre review: Looking for Alibrandi
Blood is thicker than passata in Vidya Rajan’s new take on Melina Marchetta’s Year 12 English staple, Looking for Alibrandi.
Josie Alibrandi has been part of Australia’s consciousness since the early 1990s. From hiding a copy of Dolly Magazine inside a bible to the confusing love-triangle between preppy John Barton (Ashton Malcolm) and rugged Redfernite Jacob Coote (Riley Warner), Josie’s story had just enough spunk to endear and enthral readers. But it was her complicated relationship with her past and present while fighting against Australian racism, a complicated Italian-Australian upbringing, and ‘curse’ passed down from her grandmother, Katia (Jennifer Vuletic) and mother, Christina (Lucia Mastrantone) that established Looking for Alibrandi as a cherished text and celebrated film, rooted deep in Australia’s tangled history of the marginalising Italian migrants.
These roots, now spreading to the stage, tell a familiar, but revitalised story of Josephine Alibrandi — through a louder, more assured voice thanks to its star, Chanella Macri.
Rajan’s adaptation, directed by Stephen Nicolazzo, is a deviation from the more expected beats of Marchetta’s source material. There is more introspection, abstractions and fire in Josie’s story. Navigating her final year at a prestigious all-girls Catholic school in Sydney’s North Shore, Josie must deal with blonde bullies and the return of her estranged father (Chris Asimos).
Jennifer Vuletic, Lucia Mastrantone and Chanella Macri portray three generations of Alibrandi women. Photo: Matt Byrne / Supplied
Macri’s Josie is funny, effervescent and dominating of the stage – if occasionally a little too self-assured for an insecure teenager with a crippling fear of God. That confidence seems mislaid in some of the play’s more intimate and confusing moments where the story begged for naivety and nuance. Similarly, supporting characters, including Josie’s main rival ‘Poison’ Ivy and potential love interest John Barton (both played by Malcolm) were confusing additions, and often felt bombastic and comical, veering too much into caricature to make a lasting or emotional impact on the audience — which was unfortunate for the latter’s storyline.
The hot and sweaty setting of 1990s Sydney – Pauline Hanson, Silverchair, and wraparound sunnies – also got lost in this iteration of the work. There are flashes of Tina Arena’s ‘Sorrento Moon (I Remember)’, and some beautiful live singing from Vuletic’s Katia, but it doesn’t quite convey some of the important touchstones that might tickle audiences’ nostalgia and understanding of the cultural context.
Rajan’s punchier, more pronounced script shines throughout the trifecta of women. Katia, Christina and Josie, who, like the pot of simmering tomatoes on stage, blend and fall into each other with ease. Through tension, revelations, fights and fury, the three leads provide a realistic insight to growing up and fighting against tradition and expectation amongst migrant women.
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Riley Warner and Chanella Macri. Photo: Matt Byrne / Supplied
This is especially evident in a pivotal fight scene where each Alibrandi takes centre stage. Hued in red — from the stage lights, crates of tomatoes on stage and distinct smell of Italian cooking — Nicolazzo allows the audience to feel as if they are sitting at the kitchen table. The passion and fire of Macri’s Josie shone here — and provided the story a more assured heroine than previous incarnations. Macri’s bravery, Vuletic’s shame and Mastrantone’s liberation were all the most engaging and memorable parts of the show — which, at times, lost itself in mistimed comedic pacing and overwrought monologues that didn’t always complement Marchetta’s original recipe.
At the centre of this show is freedom, from both family, society and one’s own expectations. Rajan presents this deftly, and provides a fresh interpretation of a much beloved story. By subverting audience expectations, while still paying some fan-service — including Mina’s Italian classic ‘Tintarella di luna’ which opened and closed the 2000 film — Rajan provided a fresh, but comforting taste that was easily palatable, memorable simmering on for days after.
Looking for Alibrandi, presented by Brink Productions and State Theatre Company South Australia, continues at the Dunstan Playhouse until May 31