Edinburgh 2002

Fringe

Scars of War
Demarco Rocket@Apex Hotels

James Panton

Italian Scottish Connections, with the kind support of Giuliano's Ristorante Pizzeria and Ristorante Lazio, bring 'Scars of War', a play about Italian immigrants coming to Scotland during the 1930s and the impact of World War II upon their lives.

Siblings Adele and Mario Gallo arrive from Italy where they each fall in love: Mario with Helen, a local daughter of a Wee Free minister, and Adele with Hugh, a local drop-out. In the background are an old woman who links the scenes and Mario's and Helen's young son whom she looks after. The relationships develop over a period of time despite in spite of the overly protective Italian brother-sister relations and religious conflicts, until eventually Mario and Helen marry, while Adele and Hugh drift apart.

But then comes the war: on 10 June 1940 Mussolini declared war on Britain and France and the Italian immigrant population began to be interned. On July 2 of the same year, the Arandora Star, a converted luxuary liner transporting more than 1500 civilian internees was sunk by a German torpedo. Almost a third of the passangers lost their lives, including our fictional Mario and a (real) 446 other Italians.

This is a traditional piece of theatre which is at times engaging,. The scars of war are undoubtedly many, and the story of the lives of such Italian immigrants, some torn apart, others recovered, are undoubtedly moving, but I found it difficult to feel much concern for the characters of this play. The format seems one that could be transposed (and indeed, has been) from any number of other similar stories of life during the war.

Although the actors all perform well, the story is told in a way that is overly nostalgic, the play as a whole is never far from cliché, and the end result is that, although I wasn't exactly bored, I wasn't really very interested either.

Until 17 August: 20.00 (1hr)

Scars of War has been pencilled in for discussion at the Institute of Ideas' Round Table Rumbles event on Saturday 10 August, when the theme is The Theatre of War.