Set in 1953 this is the love story of a 'slow-witted' American girl 'doing' Europe (as only Americans can) and a local Italian boy with virtually no English. Their attempts to communicate provide plenty of laughs while showing that, by learning some Italian, the girl, Clara, is perhaps not as slow-witted as her mother assumes.
Set in Rome and Florence, the staging is unbelievable. Huge white marble slabs move to and fro across the stage and then confound your expectations by turning and twisting to form hotels, shops, museums, bedrooms, boudoirs, streets and the titular piazzas. Huge statues and paintings fly down from above and tables track across the stage unaided. Many of the unique features of The Curve are used to good effect here and several audience members near me gasped at times.
With quite a chunk of both the dialogue and the libretto in Italian it is to the credit of both the cast and director that those non-linguists amongst the audience didn't miss any plot points.
The whole tone of the evening was superbly set when, 10 minutes before curtain up in the cafe/bar area, we were treated to the unexpected sound of Italian opera being sung a cappella from one of the balconies high above our heads.
With a strong singing cast and excellent period costumes the tone of the whole production was spot-on. This production deserves to find a West End home very soon.
© Paul Towers 22/5/2010
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