Billed
as “a story of women’s courage, of sisterhood and pride”,
A century on, A Bench on the Road resurrects their voices to show the relevance of their thoughts and fears today, dealing with the realities of living within a foreign culture, and the emotional tales of working out how the women fit in, where they truly belong and their relationship with the motherland, often with absent husbands.
History is generally written by men, focused on major events, statistical descriptions and all the economic facts. As this foray into the past shows, however, women have always played a key role in the success of economic migrants, whether it is keeping a sense of familiarity and normality at home or, more commonly, as an intrinsic part of family businesses.
A century on, A Bench on the Road resurrects their voices to show the relevance of their thoughts and fears today, dealing with the realities of living within a foreign culture, and the emotional tales of working out how the women fit in, where they truly belong and their relationship with the motherland, often with absent husbands.
Half a dozen actors convey a variety of characters in both Italian and English, melding the qualities of folk songs from both countries with particularly heart-felt emotional harmony. During the scenes depicting the Second World War, the most poignant line was: “I am not Italian enough to be your enemy and I am not Scottish enough to be your friend.”
There were some confusing moments, such as when the Scottish chorus suddenly changed to being Italian and back again; the clucking that didn’t really add to the scene and went on for too long; the possibly political march and the switch from live to recorded music at the end were somewhat stilted.
The courage was evident, as was the pride, but here’s hoping scenes of sisterhood, along with some of the audience suggestions (at the post-performance Q&A) will be included in the final production.
Despite the frequent code-switching between Italian and English, this immersive production is wholly relevant to those interested in Scottish and Italian cultural history, or anyone who has moved from their home country to make a better life. If this is what writer/director Laura Pasetti and her team can achieve in a mere ten days, here’s to the final production.
