Review: Fun and fast-paced, “Made in Italy” finds its home on the stage
Photo credit: Farren Timoteo stars in the one-man show “Made in Italy,” inspired by the experiences of his father growing up in Canada. (Photo by Danielle Stasiuk Photography)
Matt Olson
Never before has a show made me want so much to be Italian. Nor has one made me laugh at one Italian-Canadian’s hijinks quite this much.
Made in Italy is the one-man show by actor Farren Timoteo, highlighting a somewhat fictionalized version of his father’s life and upbringing as a second-generation Italian immigrant in Jasper, Alberta in the 1970s. Timoteo plays his teenage father and a plethora of other characters both in and around his family.
Timoteo said his first forays into comedic impressions of his family came as part of some stand-up comedy, and the delivery definitely feels like a stand-up show early on. Absolutely hilarious caricatures of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends, from small-working-town Jasper to a trip back to his ancestral home in Italy, pop in and out with repeated, characteristic voices and physical mannerisms.
But it’s Timoteo’s physicality and musical chops that elevate this show from something we’ve seen before to something truly unique. First – can he ever sing. One of the major recurring storytelling devices is the role of music in this family, and it gives Timoteo the chance to sing all kinds of styles with aplomb.
