Looking For Alibrandi

Campaign image for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. In Photo: Chanella Macri. Photographer: Kristian Gehradte

Looking For Alibrandi

By Vidya Rajan

09 July 2022 – 31 July 2022 Merlyn Theatre

Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir,

Theatre Adaptation Co-Production Season 2022

The beloved Australian classic novel and groundbreaking film comes to the mainstage for the first time.

Josie Alibrandi is in her final year of high school. Whip-smart and aspirational, she is a third-generation Italian teenager and scholarship kid, with the shadow of a family curse and a penchant for rulebreaking. Juggling grades, boys, and the claustrophobia of an overbearing nonna and saintly mother, Josie’s life becomes tangled in the webs of class, identity, and family history as she finds her place in a changing world.

Iconic novel and cult movie, Looking for Alibrandi is the honest and empowered portrait of 1990s Mediterranean culture that spoke for the first time about systemic racism in Australia from a migrant perspective. It defined a generation and to this day resonates with those caught in the stranglehold of identity and othering in this country. Director Stephen Nicolazzo (LoadedMerciless Gods) brings Melina Marchetta’s best-selling novel to the mainstage for the first time, where Vidya Rajan’s adaptation will join three generations of women in a passionate, heart wrenching, and unmissable rendering of the Australian classic.

Starring Chanella Macri (Australian Realness), Lucia Mastrantone, and Jennifer Vuletic (Because The Night) as the Alibrandi women with Ashley LyonsHannah Monson, and John Marc Desengano (The Lockdown Monologues).

 

★★★★½
“BURSTS TO RADIANT LIFE ON STAGE IN THIS JOYOUS SUNBEAM OF A PRODUCTION”
— ArtsHub

 

"The story has always compelled me because it spoke so directly to the conflict I experienced, socially and internally. I was scared to embrace my identity for fear of not being able to access an Anglo-centric world. Josie was the first character I had ever read or seen on screen that understood what it was like. She made me proud to be a wog and I will thank Melina for creating her every single day."
Stephen Nicolazzo, Director, Looking For Alibrandi
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. In photo: Lucia Mastrantone. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Chanella Macri, Jennifer Vuletic. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. In photo: Jennifer Vuletic. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Chanella Macri, Hannah Monson. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. In photo: Hannah Monson. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Chanella Macri, Lucia Mastrantone. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Lucia Mastrantone, Chanella Macri. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Ashley Lyons, Chanella Macri. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Lucia Mastrantone, Chanella Macri, Jennifer Vuletic. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott
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Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. In photo: Lucia Mastrantone. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Chanella Macri, Jennifer Vuletic. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. In photo: Jennifer Vuletic. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Chanella Macri, Hannah Monson. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. In photo: Hannah Monson. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Chanella Macri, Lucia Mastrantone. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Lucia Mastrantone, Chanella Macri. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Ashley Lyons, Chanella Macri. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Production still for the 2022 Season of 'Looking For Alibrandi'. L-R: Lucia Mastrantone, Chanella Macri, Jennifer Vuletic. Photographers: Jeff Busby & Tamarah Scott

Cast

John Marc Desengano

John Marc Desengano

Performer (Jacob Coote)

Ashley Lyons

Ashley Lyons

Performer (Michael Andretti)

Chanella Macri

Chanella Macri

Performer (Josie)

Lucia Mastrantone

Lucia Mastrantone

Performer (Christina & Sera)

Hannah Monson

Hannah Monson

Performer (John Barton & Ivy)

Jennifer Vuletic

Jennifer Vuletic

Performer (Nonna & Sister Benedict)

Clarisse Bonello

Clarisse Bonello

Performer (Understudy)

Creatives

Vidya Rajan

Vidya Rajan

Writer

Kate Davis

Kate Davis

Set & Costume Designer

Daniel Nixon

Daniel Nixon

Composer & Sound Designer

Katie Sfetkidis

Katie Sfetkidis

Lighting Designer

Rosa Voto

Rosa Voto

Choreographer

Marline Zaibak

Marline Zaibak

Casting Director

Cecily Rabey

Cecily Rabey

Stage Manager

Harry Dowling

Harry Dowling

Assistant Stage Manager

Acknowledgements

Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir present Looking for Alibrandi. Malthouse is supported by COVID-19 Arts Sustainability Fund - an Australian Government initiative.

Production Program