By Helen Musa

If your vision of the Italian extended family is rose-tinted, Frank Lotito’s comedy The Italian Divorce, coming soon to The Q, may give you pause for thought.

Lotito has tapped into the changing demographics of Italian-Australian society with a story that begins when the protagonist Pino is forced to move back home after his wife kicks him out.

Within hours, the entire neighbourhood knows. Mamma Lucia is laying on the guilt and warding  off the evil eye, Il Malocchio, while Dad is dispensing outdated advice and the Greek neighbour, Dimitri, arrives with a bottle of ouzo and a swig of philosophy. What could possibly go wrong?

That’s the premise of the play, which has been packing theatres for more than a year and is now touring Victoria, NSW, SA and WA.

When I catch up with Lotito by phone at his home in Brunswick, it’s clear he is no newcomer to the entertainment industry. His directing credits include Wog Boys Forever, while his production work encompasses television and film projects for Fox and Hollywood studios. 

As an actor, he appeared in television series such as Neighbours, Blue Heelers and The Secret Life of Us. In 2011 he wrote, produced and starred in the Australian comedy film Big Momma’s Boy.

Lotito had stopped doing theatre for about 14 or 15 years, but then   open-heart surgery saw him wake up on the other side with the realisation that he needed to go back to where he started – live theatre.

“Besides, after covid the industry was in crisis… with theatre, we didn’t need anyone’s permission to do it but with film and TV there are many gatekeepers.”

He wrote The Italian Divorce and, about a year ago, gathered a group of actors around a table in Melbourne for the first script reading.

“It’s a very simple concept,” he says. “The son of an Italian family decides to get a divorce and is told you’ll have to move back home… an interesting concept these days and a recipe for comedy and disaster.” 

Lotito and his business partner of 20 years, Joe Accurso, searched high and low for a suitable theatre but couldn’t find one. Instead, they transformed the Italian Social Club in Williamstown with temporary tiered seating and Italian food, then launched a 15-performance season that sold out.

From there, the rest has been history. The show has enjoyed sell-out performances in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, as well as regional centres including Shepparton, Mildura and Geelong and continues to tour nationally. 

“We’ve done 40 shows and we’ve got another 30 booked,” he says.

One of the distinctive features of the production, and what a cast it is, is that all the Italian-Australian characters are played by Italian-Australian actors, while neighbour Dimitri is played by Greek-Australian actor Steve Mouzakis.

Davide Mollica stars as Pino, with Lotito playing his retired carpenter father Bruno, modelled on his own father. Louisa Mignone appears as Teresa, Pino’s unmarried sister, Rosanna Morales plays Mamma Lucia, and Alessandra Merlo and Jeanette Coppolino share the role of Lisa, the soon-to-be ex-wife.

Lotito makes no apologies for his casting choices. Having spent years in the industry being stereotyped as a “wog” or overlooked altogether, he now relishes the opportunity to cast performers whose cultural backgrounds match the characters they portray, especially when, as he says, there are so many talented actors available.

“When I started out as an actor in Australia they always cast an Anglo actor instead of an Italian or Greek,” he says. “It was just so frustrating to see so many actors who couldn’t even speak the Italian words, but it’s changing now.”

Lotito draws my attention to Christopher Nolan‘s recent casting in Hollywood of Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, which has been drawing a severe black backlash.

“We’ve got a long way to go but we’re getting there,” he says.

The audience says he reports have not just been Italian and Greek, a mixture of people, lots of Maltese and Croatians as well. 

“Each character in the play is based on people I know… we laugh and cry because it’s true,” he says.

If you want to see this one, you’ll need to be quick. The production arrives in Queanbeyan for just one performance as part of its whirlwind national tour.

The Italian Divorce, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, June 27.