Writer: Lea Ferrari
Director: Alan Alpenfelt
The Unione Ticinese celebrates its 150th birthday by commissioning Lea Ferrari’s play Valchera’s, set in the Swiss-Italian community running a restaurant in London in the Spring and Summer of 1914. A semi-abstract piece about female solidarity, friendship, food and the burden of war, Ferrari’s mixed media approach is strong on developing a central relationship, women brought together by resistance to different kinds of external power but struggles to find a suitable ending for its characters. As a story about migrant communities, its journey proves more rewarding than the eventual destination.
In August 1914, 19-year-old restauranteur Tina has married the man she loves, but his instant betrayal has left the unseen man locked in a lobster trap. Meanwhile, staff member Iride pines for the man she left behind in Paris, a revolutionary locked away only able to communicate via letter. Spooling back a few months to how these women met, Valchera’s restaurant is a safe haven for them both.
In drama, restaurants are often places of formality – the rituals and expectations of public dining – but also of transition, functional rooms that customers pass through on their way to somewhere else. For a play focused on an ex-pat community, Valchera’s becomes a representational setting with multiple levels of meaning both for Iride seeking safety and for London-born Tina, who has a cultural affinity with its customers. Ferrari could make more of the hourly comings and goings of the restaurant business, the patrons passing through, as well as the symbolism of nationhood and shared social history to make the restaurant itself more tangible.
Much of what we see instead takes place behind the scenes, a story that jumps back and forth in time from February to August 1914 while also structured around a three-course menu. And although a video of a contemporary chef is shown making eggs drumkilbo, the choice of food, its preparation and service isn’t a strong enough metaphor to represent the action. The First World War timeline is also a little sticky, with references sometimes occurring before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in late June, with Britain only entering the conflict on 4 August, but there is certainly merit in the female civilian perspective on the months leading to that moment.
Ferrari and director Alan Alpenfelt employ a variety of staging techniques, including videos of performer Nabila Dolfini in the Alps, where her character originates but set today, introducing the restaurant setting, movement pieces and minor audience participation. That starts to feel overwhelming and unfocused in the last part of this 80-minute show when the story slowly comes apart, and an implied sexual relationship between the women is presented through sensuous dance.
Performed by Dolfini and Martina Greewood as Tina, these are compelling characters with agency and control who hold audience interest throughout, even when folding the many sheets used as props in the play. As Ferrari takes the audience back to Tina’s wedding day and the second day of the war, the different strands need to come together more decisively.
Runs until 2 November 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Strong characters
