The Cherry Orchard
Image: Lucia Mastrantone
Lucia Mastrantone plays the eccentric Charlotte in The Cherry Orchard, her first Chekhov role.
She says, “She is the lost yet self-sufficient person who is unattached to land or family or bloodlines. She is adaptable, unlike the family she is working for, because she just moves on if she has to. However, she has a loneliness that is profound, but I think it’s Chekhov reminding us all that at the end of the day we come into the world alone and we leave the world alone”.
Mastrantone is a first-generation Italian-Australian who grew up in a little-Italy ghetto-like neighbourhood in an Adelaide suburb, which felt like a replica of her parents’ village, with all her extended family next door and across the road.
She’s always had “an interest and love for dance and acrobatics,” and worked with one of Australia’s premiere bi-lingual companies based in Adelaide called Doppio Teatro,which brought some of Italy’s best Master teachers in Commedia Dell’arte to Australia.
She says opera got her into theatre.
“When I was young, I went to see the opera The Sleepwalker with my mother who was a cleaner and my father who was a builder. All my very rowdy, loud Italian family came with us to watch this high art show. This experience made me feel the transportive nature of live theatre. I could feel the power of music and storytelling by watching my gruff uncles be brought to tears as they watched the magic unfolding in front of them.”
Until Jun 27. Belvoir St Theatre, 18 & 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills. $48-$83+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.belvoir.com.au
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