
Angela’s Kitchen
By Paul Capsis and Julian Meyrick
5 November - 18 December 2010
‘I think about my grandparents walking along this road - And now I am here. I’m in Malta. I’m looking at absolutely everything and trying to drink it in. I feel connected. I feel like I am home.’
In 1948, Angela left Malta. Having gathered up five children, she sailed out on the Strathnavar, leaving poverty and the war behind.
Her destination: Australia. In Surry Hills, she could build a bright new life.
If only she could first learn the language, finish shoring up their dilapidated house, find new friends, get the racist neighbour off her back and keep her son away from sly grog queen Kate Leigh’s kids.
Back in Malta, someone else has made a journey. Making his way along Kalkara’s glistening harbourside, a young man with flowing black hair has returned to claim his past. Paul Capsis is walking home.
A journey that begins at a kitchen table becomes a sprawling family history and a fitting tribute to a much-loved matriarch.
Told simply and truthfully, Angela’s Kitchen is an astonishingly evocative piece of autobiographical theatre from one of Australia’s most versatile performers. For this intimate and incredibly personal new work, Paul Capsis is joined by director Julian Meyrick (October) and associate writer Hilary Bell (The Falls).


