Farren Timoteo’s Made in italy is a semi-autobiographical solo show about the fractured sense of unbelonging that can accompany being the child of immigrants in Canada.Nanc Price/Mirvish
Title: Made in Italy
Written and performed by: Farren Timoteo
Director: Daryl Cloran
Company: Marquis Entertainment Inc., in association with the Citadel Theatre
Venue: CAA Theatre
City: Toronto
Year: Until June 8, 2025
In Italian families, every story begins with a juicy glass of vino – or so says Farren Timoteo’s nonno, or grandfather, near the beginning of Made In Italy, Timoteo’s semi-autobiographical solo show about family, food and the fractured sense of unbelonging that can accompany being the child of immigrants in Canada.
The show starts simply enough: Timoteo takes the stage as bespectacled grandpa Salvatore Mantini and dials his accent up to 11. Soft accordions play as part of Mishelle Cuttler’s sound design, nostalgic and gentle as Salvatore explains the theatre of a traditional Italian meal – the overture of an aperitif; the rising action of a risotto or pasta; the sweet climax of tiramisu.
And, of course, the main event: the ever-flowing drama of good wine, and better conversation.
Suddenly, Timoteo removes his glasses to become someone else – an equally fictionalized version of his father, Francesco. Driven by adolescent hormones and tormented by cruel schoolyard bullies in 1970s Jasper, Alta., Francesco dreams of singing something other than Italian art songs – and wearing something other than the stuffy suits his father picks out for him.
Made In Italy‘s musical interludes, nicely performed by Timoteo, never feel like padding.Nanc Price/Mirvish
A teenage trip to Italy sees Francesco blossom in more ways than one – a lifelong friendship erupts with his cousin, and Francesco gets the chance to see his father’s culinary traditions in context. Stories about his grandmother’s pasta e fagioli become deliciously real, a token of his genealogy made tangible. Italy, in the important ways, is home, he learns.
Timoteo’s play, directed by Citadel Theatre artistic director Daryl Cloran, is not new: It’s had a healthy string of runs across Canada, and based on Timoteo’s performance, it’s not hard to see why. Timoteo oozes with stage presence as he twirls his family’s story around like a spaghetti noodle, stretching it out and tending to it with high-energy sauce. As told by Timoteo, the Mantini family sounds just as worthy of an HBO dramedy as the fictional Sopranos – Francesco, in particular, makes for a rather charming anti-hero, even in the later beats of the play, which briefly see him turn his back on his heritage.
Made In Italy falls neatly into an existing tradition of semi-autobiographical plays about second-generation Canadians, but eschews the genre‘s penchant for 90-minute runtimes. At nearly two-and-a-quarter hours, including a lengthy intermission (for audience members to partake in the vino, presumably), the play feels overly lengthy and breaded with material that doesn’t always serve the rest of Timoteo’s more incisive writing. An extended Rocky-inspired sequence, in which teenage Francesco prepares to hit his bully, comes to mind; while Timoteo’s a decent slapstick comic, just a few too many of Made In Italy‘s gags hinge upon Timoteo’s ability to throw himself on and off the large dining table sat centre stage.
Timoteo oozes with stage presence as he twirls his family’s story around like a spaghetti noodle, stretching it out and tending to it with high-energy sauce.Nanc Price/Mirvish
Speaking of that table, though: Cory Sincennes’s set design, featuring dozens of framed photos and the massive dining surface, is just lovely, and provides Timoteo with ample room to play – more than once he launches himself from antique-looking chairs or lays himself bare to a saint on Sincennes’s back wall, snappily lit by Celeste English.
Additionally, Made In Italy‘s musical interludes, nicely performed by Timoteo, never feel like padding – that’s especially true of Timoteo’s rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water, sung jointly in Italian and English. Autobiographical solo shows can often feel in search of their endings – that’s not the case here, and, length quibbles aside, Timoteo’s final beat is touching and honest.
It’s a neat coincidence that, just a few blocks away from the CAA Theatre, two similarly excellent plays explore the complications of growing up within immigrant families.
Packaged by Buddies in Bad Times as a cheekily-titled double bill called Genrefuck., Augusto Bitter’s Reina breathes vibrant life into the women printed onto packages of P.A.N. corn flour, while Julie Phan’s Never Walk Alone offers sex work as a gesture toward familial intimacy. While I’m more impressed by the latter of those two, I’m also rather charmed by the unintentional triptych of immigration-informed family portraits now playing between Alexander and Bloor streets in downtown Toronto. (The double bill at Buddies runs until Saturday.)
Back on the Mediterranean side: While Made In Italy could use a trim, the play’s poignant ending makes for a digestivo that’ll likely satisfy the masses with its simplicity and genuine charm. Now that’s amore.
