With beautiful sets and fine actors, In Piazza San Domenico is a silly romantic comedy that celebrates Italian lifestyle. Unfortunately, silly is just not satisfying enough.
Piazza marks the return of Mambo Italiano playwright Steve Galluccio, who left the theatre to focus on films for a couple of years. His newest comedy about families and relationships in 1950s Italy is funny, a show that everyone and their cousin Luigi will probably enjoy. However, as theatre, it is not entirely fulfilling.
Galluccio paints his comedic landscape with broad strokes, which appeals to the masses (it certainly had the opening night crowd in stitches) but leaves more to be desired in terms of originality.
Piazza is a comedy of misunderstandings: Carmelina (Christina Broccolini) breaks off her engagement with Guido after seeing him kiss another woman in Piazza San Domenico while out drinking with his friends. Guido, however, is the jealous type, and after asking his friend Tonino (Michel Perron) to help him win Carmella back, he begins to suspect him of having an affair with her. In order to get revenge, Guido is determined to sleep with Tonino’s brash wife, Marisa (Jocelyn Zucco), which is played for laughs as Marisa is much older and all-too-willing to sleep with him. The plot becomes more intricate when Carmelina decides she wants to marry Tonino’s pathetic, mamma’s boy brother, Severino.
Broccolini lights the stage ablaze as Carmelina, commanding the large stage regardless of her petite stature. In a church scene, where she meets the woman who kissed her fiancé, Broccolini juggles the comedic dialogue with just the right amount of venom and lightheartedness. “I hope that when you take communion,” she tells the adulteress, “the body of Christ stays stuck in your throat until you turn blue [and] drop dead.”
The church scene, however, ends in a cat fight, with the two women pulling at each other’s hair, and rolling around on the floor. Unfortunately, this represents Piazza as a whole: it begins well, with strong writing and witty dialogue, but ends with cheap theatrics that disregard its audience’s intelligence.
The problem with the play is that much of it is centered on slapstick revenge and miscommunication, while more subtle and worthy story lines are marginalized and treated as leftover material.
What Galluccio does get right is the complex family and societal relationships in conservative post-Second World War Italy. Once Carmelina’s mother, Isabella (played by the wonderful Ellen David), finds out about the broken-off engagement, she is quick to try and get them back together, but is too conservative to let them speak privately in a room alone. “I’m not leaving the two of them alone until their wedding night, and even then,” she quipped.
Isabella is concerned with how her neighbors perceive her, as she tries to avoid being part of the piazza gossip mill. It has been eight years since her husband’s death, and she continues to mourn him by wearing black and restricting her life to the confines of her small apartment. It is only once the friendly fig vendor comes knocking that she is able to love again.
The rest of Piazza’s cast is strong as a whole, but are not given enough time to shine individually. However, the comedic duo of Perron and Zucco played well off of each other as the disgruntled married couple constantly slinging insults at one another.
On an extremely bright note, Piazza’s set is absolutely marvelous and worthy of audiences’ attention. From the stone streets in the piazza’s central square to the working water fountain nestled between apartments and a cafe, the set is a beauty that brings much authenticity to the play. Set Designer John C. Dinning deserves credit for his elaborate, two-storey creation, as does James Lavoie, who designed the 1950s-style costumes.
What’s missing from Galluccio’s latest oeuvre is a tightened story line and some restraint on his comedic theatrics. From talented actors to the streets of Naples, Piazza has almost every ingredient to make it a runaway hit like its Mambo predecessor, but simply falls short.
In Piazza San Domenico plays at the Centaur Theatre until Nov. 1. Tickets are $38.50 for Adults and $24 for students.
