Conceived as a quasi-opera, evocative of the passionate intensity of Italian operatic characters, Homeground is not so much an “Italian play,” as a play of prisons and prisoners, frustrated human needs and passions, and dreams of home. It was first produced at Edmonton’s Fringe Festival in 1986 as Terra Staniera.
Availability
Homeground is available at some second hand bookshops. There are a few stray copies at the usual bookstores.
Available from these bestsellers
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What People Say About
Homeground: A Play
The paradoxes, the desires, the anguish of the immigrant life – the hard work and the long hours, the need to provide for those ‘at home,’ the mental strain of having a ‘homeground’ but no homeland – all are vigorously and uncompromisingly etched by Edwards. Unsentimentally Homeground theatricalizes subject matter with which we are seldom confronted, the play provides insight not only into our past but also our personal and deconstructed present…Homeground deserves further interpretation and productions.
Jonathan Rittenhouse
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Canadian Theatrical Review
Caterina Edwards’s powerful Terra Straniera promises to be one of the new play finds of the Fringe. In its current form, this play about Italian immigrants poised in a sort of eternal exile between communal security and terrifying solitude, needs a little tinkering with the interlocking monologues at the beginning. But it is interested in language and has real poetic grace.
The Edmonton Journal
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It’s an Edmonton play about Italian immigrants who hate the long winters and the dust-filled streets and long to go back to their homeland, once they’ve made enough money – meanwhile living a twilight life between two cultures…There are threats of melodrama – a rifle, a letter of confession – but the play is so firmly rooted in a detailed social setting that even overwrought moments happen inexorably. And Edwards’ ethnic considerations expand to become unforced but thoughtful comments on the tragic nature of life.
Edmonton Sun
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Reviews
The paradoxes, the desires, the anguish of the immigrant life – the hard work and the long hours, the need to provide for those ‘at home,’ the mental strain of having a ‘homeground’ but no homeland – all are vigorously and uncompromisingly etched by Edwards. Unsentimentally Homeground theatricalizes subject matter with which we are seldom confronted, the play provides insight not only into our past but also our personal and deconstructed present…Homeground deserves further interpretation and productions.
Jonathan Rittenhouse
Canadian Theatrical Review
Caterina Edwards’s powerful Terra Straniera promises to be one of the new play finds of the Fringe. In its current form, this play about Italian immigrants poised in a sort of eternal exile between communal security and terrifying solitude, needs a little tinkering with the interlocking monologues at the beginning. But it is interested in language and has real poetic grace.
The Edmonton Journal
It’s an Edmonton play about Italian immigrants who hate the long winters and the dust-filled streets and long to go back to their homeland, once they’ve made enough money – meanwhile living a twilight life between two cultures…There are threats of melodrama – a rifle, a letter of confession – but the play is so firmly rooted in a detailed social setting that even overwrought moments happen inexorably. And Edwards’ ethnic considerations expand to become unforced but thoughtful comments on the tragic nature of life.
When I was a child, I told myself stories to escape reality and plot adventures. As an adult, I use my words to explore, find, and connect to a deeper reality.
I have published six books, fiction and nonfiction, four of which won awards, and all received considerable critical and academic attention. I was also inducted into the City of Edmonton’s Cultural and Arts Hall of Fame.
I am happy to visit book clubs either in person or through Zoom.
I am also available to speak on a variety of literary topics, including the writing life or the difficulties in writing your family story. And I can offer half or full day writing workshops. I have experience giving workshops in schools, to writing groups, and once to the inmates of the Edmonton Maximum Security Institution.
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