Windfall Theatre opens its season with a drama about one man’s search for cultural and personal identity as it presents the world premiere of Louise Zamparutti’s Identita. Joe Picchetti is likably engaging as an American named Josh who has come to a small village on the Italian-Slovenian border on the occasion of his father’s death. When Josh discovers that his father owned land that will pass into his hands, things become seriously complicated.
Zamparutti deftly lowers the audience into the story. Everyone in the village seems to know Josh. Josh seems to know no one in the village. We feel his sense of bewilderment. It’s a fun journey going in. Some of Josh’s relatives want to buy the land. Others offer a different option. Josh is caught in the middle, gradually discovering that there are fundamental things about his father that he doesn’t know.
The history behind the story of Josh’s father is interesting, but feels like a shadowy echo of the past next to the more tangible drama of Josh’s personal journey to discover the truth about a father he never really had the chance to know. When Josh is caught between homes, he finds himself at a small bar run by Yulia, played with warmth and passion by a casually stunning Marion Araujo. Araujo and Picchetti have a remarkably magnetic stage dynamic that keeps the heart of the drama firmly planted in a tangible emotional world. Josh knew his father as a scientist. Yulia knew him as an artist. Together they meet a common understanding in the most captivating place in the drama.
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Windfall Theatre’s production of Identita runs through Oct. 11 at Village Church Arts, 130 E. Juneau Ave. For tickets, call 414-332-3963
