About the Play:

Paradise by the River is a full-length drama by Vittorio Rossi. A play exploring the devastating effects of an often overlooked chapter in Canada's history. On June 10, 1940, Prime Minister Mackenzie King broadcast his decision to intern hundreds of Italian-Canadians. King used a section of the War Measures Act that allowed the government to take "necessary precautions to safeguard the country from internal aliens." Paradise by the River tells their story.

Paradise by the River is about the plight of innocent Italian-Canadians who were detained in internment camps during World War II. Its the 1940s and Canada is fraught with the uncertainties of war, when Prime Minister MacKenzie King calls for the destruction of any subversive elements on the nation's soil. The Act is supported by the majority of Canadians: anxious, patriotic and "intolerant" of fascism. After Canada officially declares war with Italy, Romano Dicenzo, a recent immigrant, is arrested without charge in his own home in Montréal. Torn from the arms of his terrified and pregnant wife Maria, Dicenzo, an Italian born Canadian Citizen, is held against his will with more than 600 Italian-Canadian men at a prisoner of war camp in Petawawa, Ontario. These individuals, most of them innocent of anything resembling treason, were imprisoned there for up to four years. Their wives and families were left to subsist on a stipend of $12 per month. Many of those detained were professional people and successful businessmen. Playing out the ironies of a government acting to protect its citizens, Paradise by the River details the struggle to preserve morality in a nation and time seemingly intent on its demise.

Paradise by the River premiered in 1998 at the venerable Centaur Theatre, the oldest English-language theatre in Montréal, garnering rave reviews, and was revived there in 2010. It was presented later that year at The City Playhouse Theatre in Vaughan, Ontario and at The Lower Ossington Theatre in Toronto.

Cast: 2 female, 8 male

What people say:

"Caring is what this play, this production and this history are about. You're not going to find a more interesting or lucid work told more cogently in a long time...." — Hour

"Tale of imprisoned Italians delivers explosive, full throttle energy … As a writer, Rossi is a dialogue man, committed to documentary realism. And he has a flair for setting off hilarious imbroglios… Perhaps more than any other Canadian playwright, he succeeds at giving authentic voice to a specific community. And if that community speaks several different languages, so be it." — Montréal Gazette

"This is the Rossi play I've been waiting for; it is beautiful to look at and flows like fine wine. It's a large canvas… but Rossi has control of his colours and tones and within minutes we care about all of his people." — Free Hour

"Paradise By The River is a genuinely moving piece of social history and an important piece of Canadian story-keeping." — NOW Toronto

About the Playwright:

Vittorio Rossi is a playwright, actor, director and screenwriter who grew up in the Ville-Émard district of Montréal and still lives there. He has established himself as a significant Italian-Canadian voice on the English-Canadian stage. His plays have been produced in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, New York City, Boston, Syracuse, and The Stratford Festival in Ontario.