The Light In The Piazza

For this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival, Davine Interventionz Productions present a classy, yet accessible South Australian premiere of The Light In The Piazza – a musical that tells a disarmingly simple, intimate love story through a series of deeply layered, sometimes dazzlingly complex songs.

The story is set in 1950s Italy, and focuses on Margaret (Katie Packer), a wealthy middle aged American who is touring the country with her naïve, psychologically fragile daughter, Clara (Kristin Stefanoff). A socially awkward, but tender-hearted Florentine shop-assistant, Fabrizzio (Lindsay Prodea) is drawn into the orbit of these two tourists and is instantly smitten with Clara. A whirlwind holiday romance ensues, despite the barriers of language, class, age, religion and culture. As the relationship develops from puppy love to something more serious, Margaret struggles to come to terms with both her daughter’s growing independence and bonding with Fabrizzio’s family (David Visentin, Irene Castrechini-Sutton, Lisa Simonetti and Andy Timmings).

Though written in 2003, Adam Guettel’s score draws its inspiration from Neoromantic classical music, and with its sometimes sudden harmonic shifts and soaring melody lines, The Light In The Piazza more closely resembles light opera than most 21^st century Broadway musicals. Though many of the songs lack a strong hook, the lush, languid romanticism of the music casts a seductive spell upon the listener. Peter Johns conducts a five piece chamber group – Martin Cheney (piano), Liesl Warner (harp), Tom Helps (violin), Mason Stanton (cello) and Louis Cann (double bass) – who perform some very challenging compositions with both technical precision and emotional commitment.

Much the same can be said about the cast, a veritable embarrassment of riches. Stefanoff eschews all the stereotypical mannerisms associated with the mentally impaired, convincing as a young woman who is vulnerable, but possessed of a quiet inner strength and strikingly perceptive of human nature despite her handicap. Prodea brings an impassioned physicality to the role of her lover, ensuring that extended scenes of untranslated Italian (his character struggles with English) have an emotional clarity, even to those members of the audience who don’t speak the language. This is also true of the performers playing Prodea’s family – the slightest gestures made by Visentin, Castrechini-Sutton, Simonetti and Trimmings all speak volumes as to the characters’ states of mind.

Packer has the most challenging role of all, wavering between embittered cynicism, wistful nostalgia, fearful reserve and finally a pragmatic acceptance of the situation. She remains consistently authentic throughout each stage of Margaret’s complex emotional journey.

Tim Blackshaw has a thankless role, as Margaret’s neglectful and mostly-absent husband, but he does his best to give the underwritten role some semblance of a personality. It’s a credit to how well cast this production is that even the extras are worthy of praise. The subtly nuanced body language and candid facial expressions that Joshua Barkley, Verity Colyer, Chris Daniels, Megan Langford, Eloise Quinn-Valentine, Matt Redmond and Trish Hendricks bring to their performances as the ordinary people who populate the streets of Florence, ensure that each location feels vibrantly alive, rather than exuding a stuffy museum flavour.

Costumes have an authentic period feel, but also come across as suitably “lived in”. Sets are minimalist, but sufficiently evocative and the lighting is at times downright stunning.

For musical theatre aficionados and all true romantics, The Light In The Piazza is arguably THE must see Fringe show of the year.

Benjamin Orchard.

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