Looking for Alibrandi
Newsletter
Theatre
Her Majesty’s Theatre and Brink Productions Presents
Looking for Alibrandi
A play by Vidya Rajan, based on the book by Melina Marchetta
17 Sep 2025
– 18 Sep 2025
Sessions
Information
Show type
Theatre
duration
2 Hours (plus 20 minute interval)
Location
Her Majesty's Theatre Ballarat
Time
Wednesday 17 September, 7:30 PM
Thursday 18 September, 11:00 AM
Thursday 18 September, 11:00 AM
Prices
Full: $59
Concession: $54
$30 under 30: $30
Cheap Seats (restricted view): $40
Mob Tix: $25
We are proud to offer Mob Tix. These are discounted tickets for self-identified First Nations People to selected shows at Ballarat’s Cultural Venues.
NOTE: for schools bookings please contact the box office via hermaj@hermaj.com or (03) 5333 5888
Concession: $54
$30 under 30: $30
Cheap Seats (restricted view): $40
Mob Tix: $25
We are proud to offer Mob Tix. These are discounted tickets for self-identified First Nations People to selected shows at Ballarat’s Cultural Venues.
NOTE: for schools bookings please contact the box office via hermaj@hermaj.com or (03) 5333 5888
Suitable for
Ages 14+
Josie Alibrandi is in her final year of high school. Whip-smart and aspirational, she is a third-generation Italian teenager and scholarship kid, with the shadow of a family curse and a penchant for rule-breaking. Juggling grades, boys, and the claustrophobia of an overbearing Nonna and saintly mother, Josie’s life becomes tangled in the webs of class, identity, and family history as she finds her place in a changing world.
Iconic novel and cult movie, Looking for Alibrandi is the honest and empowered portrait of 1990s Mediterranean culture that spoke for the first time about systemic racism in Australia from a migrant perspective. It defined a generation and to this day resonates with those caught in the stranglehold of identity and othering in this country.
Award winning director Stephen Nicolazzo (Loaded, Merciless Gods) brought Melina Marchetta’s best-selling novel to the stage for the first time, where Vidya Rajan’s AWGIE nominated adaptation joined three generations of women in a passionate, heart wrenching, and unmissable rendering of the Australian classic.
With live passata sauce making, traditional Italian music and a soundtrack of Australian pop classics, Looking for Alibrandi is a vibrant theatrical experience full of passion, laughs, and beauty.
Looking for Alibrandi was commissioned and first produced by Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir St Theatre in 2022.
★★★★★ “Clever, heartening, full of detail and gravitas” - Theatre Matters
★★★★1/2 "A ridiculously enjoyable sunbeam of a production.” - Arts Hub
★★★★ “Perfectly cast” - The AU Review
★★★★ “A heart-warming tale whose humour, honesty, radiant social relevance and narrative longevity can survive not only novel and film incarnations, but now, I’m delighted to report, a stage play too." - Theatre Now
“Dark and uncompromising. It will resonate with subsequent waves of migrants” - The Australian
“Achingly raw…painfully, beautifully rendered…Timeless” - The Guardian
Content Warnings: Coarse language, Stage Violence, Suicide, Sexual References Descriptions of domestic violence, Discriminatory language, Smoke and Haze Effects
Photo by Daniel Boud
Iconic novel and cult movie, Looking for Alibrandi is the honest and empowered portrait of 1990s Mediterranean culture that spoke for the first time about systemic racism in Australia from a migrant perspective. It defined a generation and to this day resonates with those caught in the stranglehold of identity and othering in this country.
Award winning director Stephen Nicolazzo (Loaded, Merciless Gods) brought Melina Marchetta’s best-selling novel to the stage for the first time, where Vidya Rajan’s AWGIE nominated adaptation joined three generations of women in a passionate, heart wrenching, and unmissable rendering of the Australian classic.
With live passata sauce making, traditional Italian music and a soundtrack of Australian pop classics, Looking for Alibrandi is a vibrant theatrical experience full of passion, laughs, and beauty.
Looking for Alibrandi was commissioned and first produced by Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir St Theatre in 2022.
★★★★★ “Clever, heartening, full of detail and gravitas” - Theatre Matters
★★★★1/2 "A ridiculously enjoyable sunbeam of a production.” - Arts Hub
★★★★ “Perfectly cast” - The AU Review
★★★★ “A heart-warming tale whose humour, honesty, radiant social relevance and narrative longevity can survive not only novel and film incarnations, but now, I’m delighted to report, a stage play too." - Theatre Now
“Dark and uncompromising. It will resonate with subsequent waves of migrants” - The Australian
“Achingly raw…painfully, beautifully rendered…Timeless” - The Guardian
Content Warnings: Coarse language, Stage Violence, Suicide, Sexual References Descriptions of domestic violence, Discriminatory language, Smoke and Haze Effects
Photo by Daniel Boud
Cast & Creatives
Director
Stephen Nicolazzo
Writer
Vidya Rajan (based on the novel by Melina Marchetta)
Set and Costume Design
Kate Davis
Lighting Design
Katie Sfetkidis
Sound Design
Daniel Nixon
Musicians
Rosa Voto and Renato Vacirca
Tarantella Choreography
Rosa Voto
Dialect Coach
Paulo Bongiovanni
Cultural and Language Consultant
Lucia Mastrantone
Chanella Macri
Lucia Mastrantone
Jennifer Vuletic
Ashton Malcom
Riley Warner
Chris Asimos