The Angelina Project

Tamara Jones, a former production stage manager/operations supervisor in
the Entertainment Department of Paramount Canada’s Wonderland, has
relocated to Burlington, Vermont.

Canino’s play centres on Amelia Covello, a graduate student whose
research into the treatment of women by the justice system begins to
consume her life. Most especially she is haunted and disturbed by the
actions of Angelina Napolitano, a 28-year-old Italian immigrant and
mother of four, who killed her husband with an axe in Sault Ste. Marie
in 1911. The theme of abuse and violence is explored as Canino traces
four generations of women in Italian immigrant families.

The play’s overarching theme—the tendency of the past to repeat
itself—is interminably evident as all three major characters threaten
to kill their husbands. The inclusion of the mythical character
Clytemnestra, though befitting the theme of spousal murder, is handled
awkwardly. It is also consistent with the play’s overall absence of
subtlety. The inclusion of extensive supplementary material on the
play—historical background, production and playwright’s
notes—suggests a reluctance on Canino’s part to allow his play to be
judged on its own merits. The Angelina Project has an interesting
theatrical structure and considerable potential, but in the end it fails
to deliver.