CQAF 2025

Join us for a rehearsed reading with music of a vibrant new play by acclaimed playwright, Brenda Winter Palmer.

Cast
Santa Lucia Forza: Libby Smyth
Fortuna: Maggie Cronin
Musician: Rod McVey

It is 1937. In Italy, Mussolini is at the zenith of his Fascist powers. In Belfast, the celebrated chippy, Lucy’s, is gearing up for the usual Friday night rush. Its owner, Santa Lucia Forza, is not happy. It is fifty years since she escaped hunger to find a better life in Belfast. But, now that Il Duce has made Italy great again, she longs to go home. Her husband, street musician Antonio, has other ideas.

Santa Lucia’s widowed daughter Fortuna is refusing to help in the shop. Nor will she find other employment. Fortuna’s son Pietro, to his Nonna’s dismay, is more  interested in hurling than in learning Italian. All Santa Lucia’s woes come to a head when she tries to set her daughter up as a fortune teller. In 1937. it is probably best not to see too far ahead.

This play pays tribute to the Italian economic migrants who flocked to Ireland from the 1880s onwards. They have contributed richly to cultural and economic life here as vendors of fish suppers,  ‘99s’, pokes and sliders as well as bringing us their skills as musicians and exquisite terrazzo tilers. They were ill-rewarded when Mussolini entered Hitler’s War in 1940 and Italian residents became enemy aliens overnight.

Brenda Winter Palmer is the author of the First World War drama, Medal in the Drawer, and the highly successful ‘show band wives’ story, Keep Telling Me Lies. Her most recent play, RSVP: Typhoid Mary, is slated with Brassneck Theatre Company for production in 2026.

Running time: 70 minutes. There will be an opportunity for discussion and questions after the performance.

Age: 14+

Photo: La Famiglia Marcantonio (Marken). With thanks to the Marken family for permission to use the photograph. Thanks too to the members of Victor’s Cafe Facebook page for all their help.