A play on an Italian family settling in Oz

By THOMAS HUKAHU
THIS book review is special in that it is the first published script that I have read from start to finish.
Yes, it is not your normal reading material – like a novel, novella or a memoir.
It is a script for a stage play published by an Australian publisher as a school edition, meaning it can be used by schools to study and possibly perform.
The script was penned by popular South African author Richard Beynon.
As a scriptwriting student, I have read many scripts (for stage plays or the screen) but have not actually completed one – so this one by Beynon is special.
(It takes some understanding to follow a written script and enjoy the drama, suspense or comedy in it.
However, for many of you reading this article, it is likely that you may have read and worked with a script in an English or Expressive Arts class when you were in high school and so the format of the text should not be unfamiliar.)

List of characters and the story
Beynon’s play – Shifting Heart – has three Acts, with two scenes in Act II and one scene only in each of the other two.
In a way, it is one of those plays that is very simple, without too many acts and scenes – something that may be complicated for beginners in scriptwriting or those who want to produce the play.
Another good thing about the play is that it has only eight characters, as those in the Bianchi family – Poppa, Momma, Gino the son and daughter Maria, who is expecting a child.
There is also Maria’s husband Clarry (Clarence) Fowler and the Bianchis’ neighbours – Leila and Donny Pratt.
In a later scene a police officer Detective- Sergeant Lukie will show up.
The play shows the audience happenings in the evening of Christmas Day and the morning after. The Bianchis are a family who originally came from Italy and settled in Australia for eight years.
Even though they regard themselves as Australians, their talking with Clarry, or Clarry talking with the police officer, gives an indication that they are still not regarded completely as Australians.
Even Gino who likes to go out dancing often comes home with bruises and his parents try to discourage him from going out because it is likely that he gets into scuffles with some of the locals in the dancing hall.
Tragedy strikes (in Act II) when the family, with the Bianchis and Clarry, are in the house preparing for the evening, when Gino comes back from his outing all bloodied.
Poppa accompanies him to the hospital and returns two hours later looking tired – too tired to say anything.
He does not say anything to Momma’s queries regarding Gino’s condition. It is only when he starts to cry that Momma realises the truth – their son had died, possibly from the injuries suffered from a fight.

Tragic news
Here is a part of the script where there is a conversation between Clarry and Poppa after the tragedy where Gino was killed on his outing.
Hours ago, Poppa had arrived from the hospital with the tragic news.
Both he and Clarry had been drinking a bit before Gino’s demise. They are still not in their right senses after the incident.

Here is a part of the script:
POPPA: I fry some salami for you; you eat it now?
CLARRY (shakes his head): Turn out the gas, Pop.
POPPA: You should eat.
CLARRY: Yeah, sharks should fly.
POPPA: What kinda thing’s that yo say? You got a mouse in your head, today, or what?
CLARRY: What, Pop. That’s it. Just a little hunk a “what”, Humph! So what happens now?
POPPA: The Priest comes. I promise momma to put a shirt on.
CLARRY: No, when you leave here. Where’ll you go? Home again.
POPPA: Home. Here’s home. Here’s our friends.
CLARRY: Friends! God Almighty, they kill your son and you call ‘em friends.
POPPA: Sh! Clarry, not too loud. And you wrong; not our friends, they don’t kill. Not Mrs Pratt and the rest.
CLARRY: Plenty of others. Plenty more to kill – and their killing children.
POPPA: Children. They don’t know what they do.
CLARRY: Don’t know! Good, Holy …! Are you weak as well as stupid? Like momma says: you should hate this people.
POPPA: And you see what hate does to momma. Makes her stomach sick.

Theme of settling in a new country
Apart from the well-crafted dialogues of the characters, the reader of the script would appreciate the theme of a migrant family settling in a new country where people do not speak their mother tongue and locals suspect them of being people who are a bit awkward or too temperamental to be real locals, even after a decade of living there.
Sadly, the son-in law, Clarry showed some of that view.
Clarry, in a conversation, was asked by Poppa if he could take on Gino as a partner in his trucking business, of which Gino is an employee.
Clarry tries to ignore Poppa’s request, as if Gino was not suitable to be a partner. It would appear that Clarry was underestimating the son of an Italian immigrant and his capabilities of being a business partner with an Australian – one born in Australia.
Interestingly though, in one instance Clarry stands up for the Bianchis – particularly Gino – when conversing with police detective Lukie.

Here is a part of that in Act II:
CLARRY: What’re you talking about, bash his way in?
LUKIE: That’s what he tried to do at the dance.
CLARRY: Why should he do that? He’s got the money. He’s been going to that joint for weeks.
LUKIE: This week they changed the policy.
CLARRY: How … What do you mean?
LUKIE: Well – you know – this area, it’s filling up. New Australians everywhere. They like to dance – some of them are not bad, they tell me. Trouble is, they don’t get their way, they go all temperamental.
CLARRY: Yeah? But what’s that got to do with Gino?
LUKIE: Well, with a name like Gino Guiseppe Vittorio Bianchi. He couldn’t exactly claim to be a native now, could he?
CLARRY: He’s been here for eight years. He grew up here.
LUKIE: Not quite the same thing, is it?
CLARRY: He’s naturalized. That makes it the same thing.

Good for students
The Shifting Heart would be a good firstread for anyone who is interested in writing scripts – for stage plays, radio plays or even screenplays.
It helps you to see and follow the action as penned by the author, as well as giving you the sense of the format that you will use to write your own creative fiction.
With the simplicity of the setting and the story’s colourful dialogues, the book should carry a reader through the play as one would read a short story.
Personally I say, Beynon, who is an award-winning film and television scriptwriter with a long and accomplished career in the local industry, has done a remarkable job with this story. It appealed to me.
In fact, the Australian play won a prize in The Observer play competition in 1956. It is said to be a strong play set in strong words and leaves a strong imprint on the imagination.

Details about the book
Author: Richard Beynon
The title: The Shifting Heart
Genre: Script (stage play)
Publisher: Harper Collins (Australia)
Year: 1960
Number of pages: 108