a feature-length drama, written by Angelo Salamanca and Lella Cariddi

Synopsis

Regina’s Mixed-Business is an oasis of charm in a desert of florescent-supermarket culture. It’s been an Altona institution for forty years. It prides itself in providing customers with quality goods and, in more ways than one, personalized service. But alas business is not what it used to be and it’s often difficult to make ends meet.

The mixed business is run by an extended family comprising matriarch REGINA, 65, an enterprising single mother and excellent cook, her only daughter EMILA, 44, lover of all things theatrical, son in-law RIC, 48 a tad too much into scotch, and adopted twins, FRAN and FRANK, 19, university students. 

This colorful group resides above the shop and presents roof-top theatre “Teatro Casalingo” on a make-shift stage under the stars. Through Emilia’s concerted efforts, family members participate in creating and presenting to a private audience, re-enactments of crucial moments in their willing customers’ lives.

However, a spanner is thrown into the family works when, after promoting their homegrown theatre on radio, ALBERTO, 48, a successful ex-patriot fashion designer offers to pay top dollar for the dramatization of a painful chapter in his life. The money should be manna from the sky for the ailing business but for Ric, Alberto embodies a blast-from-the-past love affair, whilst for Emilia, this stranger appears hell-bent on throwing her life way out of kilter.

To compound Emilia’s woes, Frank has yielded to a sudden filial urge to find his birth-mother. Speculating on the cause for her son’s action, and events involving Ric’s hidden past, Emilia is forced to question the notion of motherhood, blood-ties and trust, as well as loyalty, fidelity and devotion.

“Teatro Casalingo”, has always prided itself in offering their customers a better understanding of life’s vicissitudes.
Now, as the family unit wavers dangerously on the brink of collapse, each member must do some serious soul-searching of their own and present their feelings on an “open” stage.

However, this family is nothing if not resilient. In the final analysis, it’s those familial bonds forged through love not always voiced, that enables passionate spirits such as these to accept change as an inevitable part of living.