Quirky Italian family is the focus of ‘Over the River’

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 9:34 a.m.

How does an uptight 27-year-old marketing executive from Manhattan mesh with his over-the-top, outspoken Italian grandparents who have never lived outside of Hoboken, N.J.?

Not very well. At least, not until a panic attack at a Sunday dinner leaves him a guest at their house for a few days, where he begins to better understand them.

Such is the scenario for Joe DiPietro's family comedy, "Over the River and Through the Woods," which is being performed this weekend by Theatre in the Valley at the Lorna J. Kesterson Valley View Recreation Center in Henderson.

As the plot goes, each Sunday grandson Nick goes to New Jersey to have dinner with both sets of his grandparents who are his closest relatives, geographically.

However, director Ed Clayton said, "He doesn't understand their lives because they're so much older.

"They just drive him nuts. He wonders, 'How did I come from these people.' "

Nick's grandfather, Frank, immigrated to the United States from Italy at age 14 and firmly believes in "tengo famiglia" (keep the family together), and the "Three Fs" -- family, faith and food. His wife, Aida, loudly and frequently asserts "Mangia! Mangia!" (which in English means "Eat! Eat!").

And the other set of grandparents, Emma and Nunzio, are the loudest people he's ever met.

When Nick tries to tell his grandparents that he's been offered a job in Seattle, the grandparents scheme to find reasons to keep him in New York, including setting him up unexpectedly at dinner with a nurse.

Unfortunately, all doesn't unfold well. The nurse is a vegetarian -- something the grandparents can't comprehend -- and during the evening the woman admonishes Nick for not appreciating his grandparents.

The play is truthful in offering insight to what goes on in an Italian household, Clayton said. "It's hysterical. It's very funny."

It's also very telling about grandparents who can be maddening, overwhelming and suffocating, but loving, Clayton said. "All they really want for (Nick) is the best they could do."

The message of the play, Clayton said, is that, "No matter what you think, the only thing parents (and grandparents) want for you is the best."