Over the past ten years Daniela Giorgi has given us some lovely and thought-provoking plays include Talc (produced by subtlenuance in 2010), Sicilian Biscotti (a short play written and produced for the launch of Women, Power, Culture at New Theatre in 2011), Friday (produced in 2013 by Sydney Independent Theatre Company), The Poor Kitchen (produced as part of the Old 505 Theatre’s Fresh Works Season in 2016), Shut Up And Drive (co-written with Paul Gilchrist and produced at KXT in 2016) and Seed Bomb (produced as part of the Old 505 Theatre’s Fresh Works Season in 2019). In May Patina Productions will remount The Poor Kitchen at Limelight On Oxford. Lynden Jones had a chat to her about the play.
Do you have a love of food? What is your favourite food/dish?
Growing up in an Italian family food is one of my great loves! And fresh home-made pasta is at the top of the list, my mother’s lasagna in particular. And of course it’s virtually a character in my play The Poor Kitchen. It’s hard to choose a favourite food but a good tiramisu, with its layers of coffee, mascarpone and liqueur, has been known to lead me astray may times. If you see the play and find that it makes you hungry for fresh pasta try Spago, a little Italian restaurant at Beverly Hills that I recently discovered. They make all their own pasta and the slow cooked lamb parpadelle dish is to die for.
Democracy allows as many people as possible to have a say. This often makes it a slow and complicated process. It can be frustrating but the alternatives can be deadly.
What is it about food that makes it so often a touch-point for human emotion?
It’s said that taste and smell trigger memories and they are an emotional touch stone for most people. One of my favourite memories is my father cooking a tripe ragu on his rostered days off. We’d come home from school to be greeted by the smell of slow cooked offal in tomato sauce. I refused to even taste it! Where was my adventurous spirit? My father was re-living his memories by cooking the food he’d grown up with. It was the food of ‘the poor kitchen’ a translation of ‘la cucina povera’ the simple food of the Italian peasants who ate whatever they could forage in the hills and valleys around their villages during the hard times of war and famine. My father’s memories of food always took him back to the old country and he would regale me with stories of the history of his local village; an ancient pile of stones that clings to the side of a steep mountain. Brigands and fascists always featured and sometimes there were stories of the mafia. But mainly the stories were of a hard life on the land, as they worked an olive farm in the fields below the village, and of how little food there was. But there was also a skeleton in the family closet which he only told me about just before my first visit to Italy and which later became the mystery at the heart of my play.
What inspired you or was the trigger to writing this play?
I love reading those romantic memoirs set in the sunny Mediterranean. Stories like Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence; classics of the “Good Life” genre. But I’m also deeply interested in ecology and wild creatures. For example wolves were always in the tales told by my parents about their home land when I was little. They’d been eradicated in Italy but I recently discovered they’re returning to many parts of Europe. I also knew from my father’s stories that life in Europe post WWI and through the 60’s and 70’s wasn’t always like La Doce Vita of the movies. There have been darker forces at work. So from these strands I created a play about an Australian woman who inherits a farm in Italy only to arrive and find that things are not what they seem.
What are the political issues that drive this play?
Plays allow for many voices and ideas to be heard. This play explores the idea of simplicity versus complexity through a cast of quirky characters. We often want quick, easy solutions to political issues but whenever we engage with others we realise how many viewpoints there actually are. Democracy allows as many people as possible to have a say. This often makes it a slow and complicated process. It can be frustrating but the alternatives can be deadly. The Poor Kitchen visits the violent political past in an Italy overtaken by Fascism in the 20th century. Even today the remnants of this simplistic and frightening political movement can be found in Italy and around the world. But it’s also a play about identity. Who we are and how we choose to live. Australia is a country of migrants with all the richness and challenges that that brings. But as a nation we also face the complex challenge of the planet warming. To solve this problem we are going to have to use every skill we posses and engage as many people and ideas as possible. The characters in the play face these challenges and they have to decide whether to stick stubbornly to the old ideas of the past or to choose a new way and ensure a future for themselves and their children.
What do you have planned next?
First I’m going to enjoy watching The Poor Kitchen as often as possible. It’s not every day that an offer to have one of my plays produced arrives in my Inbox so I’m very grateful to Patina Productions for re-staging this work. Then I’ll be putting on my producer hat for the production of new Australian play, Simple Souls by Paul Gilchrist. A joyous comedy about the wisdom of stupidity and a woman who won’t be silenced. It too will be on at Limelight on Oxford so I’m looking forward to working in this new venue with a bunch of great actors. But first to enjoying the political and the pasta in The Poor Kitchen!
The Poor Kitchen
Daniela Giorgi
8 – 26 May 2019
8.15pm Wed-Sat, 5.15pm Sun
Venue: Limelight On Oxford
Theatre Company: Patina Productions
Duration: Aprox 100 minutes (inlcuding one interval)
Elle unexpectedly inherits an olive farm in Italy. The neighbours are colourful, the food is divine, but as she tucks into her tagliatelle, she finds herself at the table with the ghosts of a barbarous past. Set in southern Italy, THE POOR KITCHEN is a funny and deeply moving play that explores the personal, the political and the pasta!
“A brilliant piece of writing…Highly recommended.” Lisa Thatcher
“The Poor Kitchen deserves a remount.” Australian Stage Online
“I would certainly be happy to spend a little more time with these fascinating characters.” What’s On Sydney
“An enjoyable, satisfying, thoughtful production.” Sydney Arts Guide
“Daniela Giorgi’s script is both thoughtful and insightful…colourful characters keep us entertained.” Suzy Goes See
Director Julie Baz
Designer David Jeffrey
Cast
Amy Victoria Brooks – ELLE/SOFIA
Taylor Buoro – ANNA
David Jeffrey – VITTORIO/ALDO
Wendi Lanham – GUILIA
Myles Waddell – CARLO/ROBERTO
Ticket Prices
$32 full | $27 concession | $22 cheap Wed & previews
