When Farren Timoteo’s Italian-Canadian father Luigi was growing up in Jasper, Alberta, in the late 1960s and ’70s, he felt like an outsider.
“He wore a suit to school and he would take these elaborate Italian lunches — pastas or cured meats, like salami — and the other students would make fun of him,” said Timoteo on a Zoom call from his home in Edmonton.
“He wanted nothing more than to blend in and become invisible, to eat a hot dog for lunch instead of this gorgeous food that you’d pay top dollar for today.”
That real-life story is just one of the inspirations for “Made in Italy,” Timoteo’s solo show that is premiering in Toronto after touring the country for more than five years, winning awards wherever it’s played.
The play focuses on Francesco and Salvatore Mantini, loosely based on Timoteo’s own father and grandfather. Salvatore emigrated to Alberta in the 1950s from his home in Abruzzo, Italy. After helping to build the railroad, he settled in Jasper, where Francesco was born. And Francesco, like Luigi, felt isolated and alone until he began seeing himself reflected in the pop culture of the mid-to-late 1970s.
“Rocky Balboa was like a patron saint to him,” said Timoteo of his father. “When my dad and his friends first saw ‘Rocky’ it lit a fire under them. They drove up and down the main street in Jasper playing the movie’s theme song, ‘Gonna Fly Now.’ They went to the gym and started pumping iron. Suddenly he had this hero, someone who taught him to fight back and earn people’s respect.”
Before premiering the solo show in 2016, Timoteo had built a successful career out west as an actor and director, performing in everything from Shakespeare to musicals like “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “Spamalot.” In 2006, he became the artistic director of Alberta Musical Theatre Company.
But he always knew he wanted to capture his Italian-Canadian family’s experience in a show. As a child, at the dining room table, he could do impressions of relatives that would make his family howl with laughter and recognition. As a late teen, he did standup that drew on similar material. And at theatre school, he remembers studying the one-person show format; one of his classmates, Sheldon Elter, went on to chronicle his own life in the solo show “Métis Mutt.”
It wasn’t until a trip to Abruzzo, the town his family comes from, that things clicked.
“I felt like I was with my people,” Timoteo said. “The way people communicated and expressed themselves was so familiar. To see myself in them was so powerful.”
Finding out about his father’s life proved revelatory. The two met for dinner weekly at an Old Spaghetti Factory in Edmonton (“such a cliché, I know!”) to go over the older man’s memories, from his schoolyard bullying to becoming a gigging rock musician.
Besides telling stories and impersonating some two dozen characters, Timoteo will also perform snatches of songs by everyone from the Bee Gees to Gino Vannelli.
“I’d always been proud to be Italian. In my lifetime, I’ve seen Italians celebrated for architecture, art, cars and music,” said Timoteo. “I’d never really heard of someone who was embarrassed to be Italian. This, I realized, was the engine for the show.”
After developing the piece with director Daryl Cloran and writing several drafts, one night he phoned his father and read him the play. Earlier on, he had asked his family’s permission to share their stories, telling them that he’d be fictionalizing things for drama’s sake. He wouldn’t be using real names. But still, he was worried that his father would disapprove.
“That phone call was so emotional and moving,” he said. “My dad took it and embraced it so positively. I think he was surprised to see how his stories had come together in this one unique, creative package. Then he gave me his blessing. By the end of the call we were both in tears.”
Today, Luigi Timoteo is the biggest “Made in Italy” supporter. He’s seen the show in various productions around the country. He’ll be there on opening night in Toronto.
“Whenever my dad’s in the audience it’s like the ‘Made in Italy: Special Edition,’” said Farren, laughing. “He always ends up forming a little community with whoever’s sitting near him. As people watch the show and realize he’s the person that the show is about, they give him lots of love. After the show, they ask him about his life, they buy him wine.
“I was worried he wasn’t going to like it, because it’s not all flattering,” he said. “But I tried to honour his story of struggling with his identity, and the difficult and sometimes maybe incorrect ways he dealt with that.”
One of the most heartwarming surprises is seeing how much this deeply personal work resonates with audiences from all backgrounds.
“Regardless of whether they’re Italian, people say, ‘Oh, that’s my uncle or grandma,’ which is amazing,” said Timoteo.
“As children of immigrants, so many people have had similar experiences, feeling like they’re completely outside of North American culture. I hope some sort of retroactive healing comes from this show. But also joy. There’s so much laughter and joy.”
“Made in Italy” runs from Saturday until June 8 at the CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge Ave. Visit mirvish.com or call 1-800-461-3333 for tickets and more information.
