to apr 30 | mambo italiano | gina chiarelli, david adams

Though it's been a while since we got her onto our stage, Gina Chiarelli is a beloved part of our company - Prodigal Son, The Fever, and if you go even further back, a whole string of Murder Mysteries . Well, there's a chance to see that girl on stage (though not ours) for the next couple weeks... | Oh! And digging further, I find out that David Adams is in the show too! You'll remember him from Jesus My Boy, a couple Christmases ago. Them's a pair of heavy hitters! Sounds like this is one to hurry out and see.

MAMBO ITALIANO
Apr 13 - 30 | 8pm + 2pm sat/sun | pay-what-you-can mat apr 20 27
Firehall Arts Centre

Great reviews from Kamloops! "Mambo Italiano - is a smash hit!", "In the hands of this capable cast, its hilarious" Click here for the full review!

Bound to be a Vancouver favourite in the spring, even the title Mambo Italiano gets your feet going. Canadian playwright Steve Galluccio's hugely successful Mambo Italiano is a refreshing and feel good comedy presented by the Firehall Arts Centre and Western Theatre Company.

Thirty-something Angelo Barberini, the oddball son of Italian immigrants living in Montreal, surprises his family by moving out on his own without getting married, and much to the shock of his conservative Catholic family, announces he is gay.

Once out on his own, Angelo runs into his childhood friend Nino Paventi who is also gay and deeply in the closet. Angelo and Nino rekindle their friendship, start a romance and end up sharing an apartment. Together at home, they live in coupled bliss, but outside of the house they retain their separate straight acting lives. Angelo decided that he finally wants to announce their relationship, but this decision does not sit well with Nino who fears judgement from his family. Both families struggle to come to terms with their sons' new lives, eventually planning a setup dinner in the desperate hope of "converting" their sons.

A theatrical phenonmenon, Mambo Italiano is about the dynamics of family, the vast distance between old world sensibilites and the new and about grasping the resonant codes embeddded in what is said and what is meant in ordinary speech. This funny yet poignant story is not all farce, under all the comedic acting there is a seriousness about tolerance for persons of all sexual persuasions.

A Firehall Arts Centre/Western Canada Theatre Production.