If you are looking for a follow up to Valentine’s Day, “The Light in the Piazza” is sure bet, date-night entertainment certain to remind you of the charm, trials and tribulations of love.
The play in two acts, directed by Brad Duffy, begins at the Bishop Center Saturday and plays through March 15.
It is a charming, 1953 tale of Margaret (Cathryn Davis) and her “special child,” Clara (Cora Foss), who embark upon a sightseeing adventure in Italy, leaving the patriarch, Roy (Daryl Johnson) at home. The two roam around Florence through museums and basilicas, viewing the art of Michelangelo and the “land of naked, marble boys.” They encounter all the challenges of being in a foreign country unable to speak the language.
When Fabrizio (Christian Sperline), a tie maker’s son, captures the fly-away hat that Clara loses, he is immediately smitten by her innocence and charm. Clara is an enchanted 12-year-old in a 26-year-old body with a past that her mother makes discrete from the world and Clara herself.
Coincidentally, (or not) Fabrizio runs into Clara and her mother often as they wander the Florentine sites.
Communication is awkward between the two young lovebirds, but as they say, love knows no language barrier, and they muddle through the complications of speech and parental controls.
Paradoxically, other apathetic relationships run parallel, including Clara’s parents, Margaret and Roy, as well as Fabrizio’s brother, the two-timing Giuseppe (Jerrod Phelps) and the spirited Franca (Libby Carrico), making Clara and Fabrizio’s love-at-first-sight even more charming and a reminder of what love should be.
But, Margaret goes to great lengths to protect her only child from the injustices of love, even removing her to Rome to take in the sites without the interruptions of the infatuated couple. Yet here, she acquiesces when she realizes Clara is loved by the boy and his family: Guiseppe, Franca and Signor Naccarelli (Ken Albert) and Signora Naccarelli (Lisa Newhouse). A wedding date is then set and Clara starts receiving Latin lessons from the Catholic priest (Dan Jackson) as part of the requirements of marrying into an Italiana famiglia.
Of course it doesn’t end there. Just when you think everything is moving along as planned, Fabrizio’s father inexplicably calls off the wedding.
What happens next you really need to find out for yourself. It should suffice to say it’s bitter and sweet.
If you have a chance to brush up on your Italian, you should (see sidebar) but it is not necessary. Though all scenes contain a goodly amount of Italian words, you will follow along just fine. You may even consider it a lesson in the Latin romance language. Not knowing a lick of Italian won’t keep you from being thoroughly amused by the antics, hand gestures and operatic tone of the lyrics.
If you are looking for a charming evening, make the effort to see this play. And don’t forget, to make the evening completely Italian, consider dinner at Amoré or Casa Mia prior to the 7:30 p.m. curtain time. Curtain time is 2 p.m. on Sundays
Doors open at 7 p.m. at the Bishop Center at Grays Harbor College campus. Tickets are available at the door or online at www.ghc.edu/bishop. $22 adults, $20 seniors.
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