Nella

Presented and written by Julia Mayer, Nella is a ‘pastranomic delight.’ This 60 minute debut show from actor and comedienne Mayer is a deeply personal story about migration, and the building of generations, family stories and traditions. It is the true story of Mayer’s Nona’s life, a woman who at 19 left her small northern Italian village, eventually becoming a lauded chef at the Norwood Hotel. It is an interactive entertainment feast, full of laughs, love, food and fun, with the flavours, colours and traditions of a good Italian meal not at all subtly woven through it.

Mayer has made fascinating use of a very ‘proper’ Council Chamber, turning the tables, chairs and space into an audience created, family dining area. Resplendent with the prerequisite red and white checked cloths, the audience helps set the tables, and donning gloves, we get to assist in making pasta. There are rewards of course. We get Italian (of course) fizzy water, potato chips (what 1950’s Italian gathering did not have them as a welcoming sign of prosperity?) and spoiler alert: we get to work the pasta by playing Frisbees with pieces, across the room.

Unlike any history lesson I have ever attended, the audience is taken on a whirlwind journey, first of all by an elderly lady dragging a shopping trolley that is rather like Pandora’s box; full of culinary equipment and stories of her life. Later we meet the young, vulnerable and frightened Nella whose love for her family, particularly her Papa, never wanes. Her shipboard stories and tales of her work at the Actil factory help us see the girl become a woman, one of the many migrants who, in the 1950’s, helped shape the exquisite melting pot that Australia is today.

Amidst the raucous audience behavior, Mayer delivers a poignant, and highly engaging story that is full of comedy, and also heartbreaking vulnerability. Managing all of the music and sound effects herself, she seamlessly takes us on her 65 day journey to a country where she did not speak the language, had no obvious employability skills and no grasp on what must have been an alien culture. Forced into a pre-determined marriage with a childhood friend, her life was full of hard work, a kindly Aussie milkman, a much loved new Kelvinator fridge, telephone and television (a first in the street for each of those), a house built in Glynde and fame in The Advertiser as a notable Spaghetti Marinara cook.

Mayer is a talent to be reckoned with. Her writing is beautiful and entirely relatable. Her recipe for involving the audience in the ‘magic’ of her performance simmers, froths and teases our theatre taste buds. I left sated. Uplifted by this honest, funny and heartfelt story, I am reminded that this everyday story is, in fact, the Australian recipe for success. Hurry to get there before this delicious treat is off the menu.

Jude Hines

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