Described as a post-feminist playwright, Frangione is also an actor who has been associated with Ruby Slippers Theatre in Vancouver. Her production of Espresso was nominated for a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award in 2003, as was her preceding play Cariboo Magi. Hyped as 'sexy, provocative and challenging', Espresso (Talonbooks, 2004) is one of the author's 'blasphemy plays' that inverts Catholic stereotypes of feminine sexuality. When the patriarch of an immigrant Italian family is hospitalized after a near-fatal car accident, the women of the clan converge into one actor and present their stories. The workshop and world premiere were directed by Morris Ertman and produced by Scott Campbell under the artistic direction of Ron Reed at the Pacific Theatre in Vancouver in January/February of 2003 with Lucia Frangione as Rosa and Todd Thomson in the other role of Amante. Her play Cariboo Magi (Talonbooks, 2005) concerns a makeshift troupe of would-be theatricals who attempt to mount a Christmas Pageant for the Theatre Royal in Barkerville during the Cariboo gold rush. They consist of a pregnant child star, an inept and drunken Anglican preacher, a cunning Madame named Fanny and a mixed-blood poet who claims he's the last of the Mohicans.

Everyone grieves differently, and in Lucia Frangione's play In a Blue Moon (Talonbooks 2016), we follow three characters in a combination of dance, recollection, and photography as each of the trio find peace with their new realities. After the death of Ava's husband, she moves to the only asset they have left: a farmhouse far from the city. With her daughter Frankie, Ava begins an Ayurveda clinic but there is a problem. Her long-estranged brother-in-law Will, who has been living rent free on the farm refuses to leave. Although a tender love story unfolds as Frankie finds in Will someone to trust and look up to, while Ava discovers in him a companion who pushes her to grow as a person.

In her debut novel, Grazie (Talonbooks $21.95) Frangione tells the story of a deeply depressed mother, Graziana who ends up in the hospital after the man who raped and impregnated her, dies in a car crash. Graziana needs to heal both physically and emotionally and leaves her eight year-old daughter Hazel in the care of her stepfather (the only father figure in Graziana's life) while she makes a pilgrimage to Italy to bike the Via Francigena. To Hazel, Grandpa Herman is "Grumpy" and she must learn to adjust to the old man. Both violent and tender, this story covers each of the four main characters: Herman, Hazel, Graziana (Grazie for short) and Ivan (Hazel's biological father) through interior monologues, including conversations with living people and, in Ivan's case, with supernatural beings. Central themes include transformation, forgiveness, accountability and rebirth. From publicity, the story "examines what it means to feel connection to oneself, one’s family, one’s culture and to existence."

BOOKS:

Plays (a selection of the more than 20 plays Frangione has written and/or produced)

Espresso (Talonbooks, 2004)
Cariboo Magi (Talonbooks, 2005) 0-88922-527-3
Paradise Garden (Talonbooks, 2011) $17.95 978-0-88922-658-6
Leave of Absence (Talonbooks, 2013) $17.95 978-0-88922-753-8
In a Blue Moon (Talonbooks, 2016) $17.95 978-1-77201-035-0

Fiction

Grazie: a novel (Talonbooks, 2023) $21.95 9781772015089

[BCBW 2023] "Theatre"

Grazie by Lucia Frangione (Talonbooks)

Lucia Frangione is a Vancouver-based, internationally produced, award-winning playwright and actor. She has now published her first novel, Grazie, about a depressed mother, Graziana, who ends up in the hospital after the man who raped and impregnated her, dies in a car crash. Graziana (Grazie for short) needs to heal both physically and emotionally and leaves her eight-year-old daughter, Hazel, in the care of her stepfather (the only father figure she has known) while she makes a pilgrimage to Italy to bike the Via Francigena. To Hazel, Grandpa Herman is “Grumpy,” although she adjusts to him. Herman begins home-schooling the imaginative, dyslexic and troubled Hazel (who also has ADHD), introducing her to a stable home life for the first time in her life, as she struggles with anger at being abandoned by her mother. Both violent and tender, the story covers each of the four main characters in turn: Graziana, Hazel, Herman and Ivan (Hazel’s biological father) through interior monologues, conversations and, in Ivan’s case, communication with angels. The following excerpt is written from Hazel’s point of view about an upcoming road trip with Grumpy, whom she has now learned to trust. would say that my whole life was pretty much craptacular until yesterday, when my great-grandmother wrote a letter and then called. And now we’re going to go on a road trip to Vancouver to see the ocean! I have never ever in my whole life seen the ocean! I want to swim like a mermaid but Grumpy says the water is super-duper cold and I’d get hyper-thermos. But guess what? Halfway, we are going to stop in a place called Kelowna, which is by some real big lakes in the mountains and it’s really pretty and I have an auntie and uncle there. Grumpy says it gets hot in Kelowna and I could maybe go in the water there, so I should pack a bathing suit.

Yeah, just in one day, suddenly, I have all these family people! I was going to say “not my real auntie and uncle” because it’s Grumpy’s family, but I’ve decided that Grumpy’s family is my family, and they don’t seem to mind, so I now have an uncle and an aunt and they have a big yard with cherry trees and apple trees and peach trees and pear trees and raspberries. And a golden retriever. Holy moly, can you imagine having a whole grocery store in your front yard? I’d be like plop Grump’s plop, yum Grump’s yum, m-rg-mouth-is-full-erv cherriezzz! Hrrr yummm! I like dogs. I wanna dog. I already know that this dog, whose name is Oola, is going to love playing with me. I already know that I am going to have a blanket and Oola is going to be my pillow.

And then, get this, we will go to Vancouver and guess what? My mom has a cousin there. Well, it was her mom’s cousin and I don’t know what that means for me except that I guess he’s my old old cousin. His name is Marco. Grumpy says Marco is not going to like me calling him my old old cousin and to just call him Zio Marco. It’s kind of weird to call a total stranger “Zio” (which is “Uncle” in Italian) Marco. Maybe I’ll just call him “Hey.” But I think it is cool that I’m going to meet a real Italian because that is part of my DNA. And besides, Grumpy says Zio Marco is a really good cook and very handsome and charming.

And we have to go on our Vancouver trip right away because Grumpy says my mom is going to be back from Italy in two and a half weeks! And we need to be home when she gets back. When I think of this, of Mom coming home, of seeing her ... it’s like my brain is a banana. It goes all mushy and yellow and squirts out sideways — blah. It’s like when I think of my mom, I blink a lot with my eyes. Blink blink blinkedy blink. I’ve been wondering if I’m going to hug her and there’s no way I’m going to. Not that I’m mean but she has to learn that you can’t just hug a kid if you’re going to leave your own girl for a year. Phone calls and presents don’t really count. Like I said, Mom can suck an egg.

Grumpy says that he will move out of her room so that she can have her room back and he will go back to his condo down the street. But I think too bad, it’s Grumpy’s room now. Who is going to make me breakfast and do math? (We always do math first while our mind is fresh, says Grumpy.) Mom can go live somewhere else. Mom can live in the stupid condo of Grumpy’s where she kept her stupid bike. Or she can just keep cycling all the way to Australia! Good luck crossing the ocean, dumb Mom! You can’t just leave a house and then think it’s yours when you come back.

Oh, oh, oh! I have to tell you about my great-grandmother, and by the way, she’s a real great-grandmother because she was my dad’s grandmother and that makes her great. And you know what? She sounds great! She sounds super-duper nice and she must be rich because she lives near Disneyland. And I think everybody who lives in California is a movie star or famous or at least really rich. And I know Americans have guns. I asked my great-grandmother if she was going to bring a gun and she said no. She would leave it at home. (Which means my great-grandmother HAS A GUN!) This may sound cool to boys at my school, or something like that, but if you think about it, it’s really freaking weird and also scary that such an old lady has a gun because, for one, old ladies don’t see very well.

She is going to take an airplane to Vancouver, and we are going to drive and meet her there. I’ve never in my whole life had someone that wanted to meet me before. Mostly people meet me and then they wish they didn’t. Because I am a “handful,” Grumpy says. And I always think that’s weird because a handful isn’t much. It can curl up, like a tiny pet, like a hedgehog, and you can have it in your hand or carry it in your pocket.

To me, a handful sounds super easy and very cute, but I know that’s not what he means. When I go see Uncle Eddie and Auntie Connie and all the cousins there, they are used to being around handfuls so they think I fit right in.

I hope my great-grandmother doesn’t think I’m a handful in a bad way but in a good way. Especially because she’s coming on an airplane. I hope she’s not disappointed. I’m glad I have my new yellow pants to wear. They are impressive and they don’t have holes yet. I get holes on my knees because I am always pretending and lots of times that involves being an animal. I will also have to not be a handful for Uncle David and Auntie Cathy and Zio Marco. They’ve never met me. The good thing about this is: as far as they know, I’m a perfectly normal girl. 9781772015089

[BCBW 2023]