Whack!
A young woman, Angelina Napolitano, axe murders her husband in his sleep. The subsequent trial resulted in the first use of the battered woman defense in Canada. Though Angelina had suffered years of extreme physical abuse at the hands of her husband, an all-male jury convicted her of murder and the judge sentenced her to hang. A world-wide public outcry ensued, and the Canadian government finally commuted her sentence. Whack! tells this story in a series of fast paced, kaleidoscopic scenes that are at once gut wrenching, gripping, and always fascinating.
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Cast and Creative
Playwright: Mark Weatherley
Director: Lucy Jane Atkinson
Associate Director: Monique Lund
Starring: Fiona Mongillo, Olivia Viggiani and Siobhan O’Malley
Costume Designer: Monique Lund
Mark Weatherley is a playwright, composer, lyricist, director, and actor who has lived in Stratford for the past eleven years and is a proud member of the Black Swans softball team. As an actor, he has performed on stages across North America and the British Isles. Recent plays include the musical Fitz Happens!, (book, music, lyrics) which premiered at the Lighthouse Festival and has had subsequent productions in Saskatchewan, and BC. His play Framed, premiered at the Lighthouse One Act festival, before having a successful run here in Stratford. He co-wrote a CBC film called The Chain, is developing a musical called Foozies commisioned by Eclipse Theatre in Toronto, as well as a play with music called Mozart and her Brother, which was workshopped in January in Vancouver. He would like to thank everyone attending this festival, for supporting local work by local artists.
Lucy Jane Atkinson is an experienced and award-winning director from London, England. Her work focuses on new writing, including musical theatre, devising, and immersive theatre. In 2018 she was named number 1 on The Stage’s Top Talents To Watch, stating “her direction is acutely sensitive to the shifting energy of the writing. Evident but never overbearing.”
Lucy most recently directed A HUNDRED WORDS FOR SNOW by Tatty Hennessy, (VAULT Festival, UK tour, Trafalgar Studios (winner: Outstanding New Work, VAULT 2018; 4 Offie nominations including Best Director and Best New Play)). VESPERTILIO by Barry McStay, (VAULT Festival, Dublin Fringe; (winner: Show of the Week VAULT 2019)), and MEAT, by Gill Greer.
She had directed work in Britain, the United States, and Canada, and is currently developing a further host of new plays with an eclectic mix of some of the UK’s most exciting up-and-coming playwrights.
Monique Lund is thrilled to be once again collaborating with Here For Now Theatre on this exciting, new, Open -Air Festival. She has been a professional actor, singer and dancer for over thirty years and has worked from coast to coast in Canada and the U.S. Some career highlights include the Broadway Tour of Mamma Mia in which she played the role of Donna, the original Toronto companies of The Lord of the Rings, Joseph, The Who’s Tommy, and Crazy For You. She has also spent 11 seasons at the Stratford Festival in a variety of plays and musicals, workshops and recordings including The House of Martin Guerre , Kiss Me Kate, The Music Man, Julius Caesar, Crazy For You, Elektra, The Sound of Music, The Merry Wives of Windsor, , Camelot, Evita, The Bacchae, and Cabaret. In 2017 she won the Brian Macdonald award for emerging directors at the Stratford Festival Guthrie Awards. She calls Stratford her home- both artistically and physically and looks forward to welcoming theatre lovers’ “home” once again as they settle in to share in the community of live performance.
Fiona Mongillo is the Artistic Producer of Here For Now Theatre Company and is honoured to be producing this Open-Air Festival. Selected Theatre Credits: Angelina in Whack! (Here For Now), Senta von Schrader in Framed (Lighthouse/ Here For Now), Louise in The Enchantment (HERE Arts, NYC); Bessie in The Young Ladies of Baddeck (Theatre Baddeck); Rose in Eigengrau, Summer in A Fountain Troubled, Elisabeth in Laundry and Bourbon (Here For Now); title role in Hamlet, Flaminia in The Double Inconstancy, Lady Fancifull in The Provok'd Wife (LAMDA); Hilde in The Master Builder (Yorick Theatre/ UBC). Training: MA in Classical Acting, LAMDA. BFA in Acting, UBC.
Olivia Viggiani is a Canadian-born actor, writer, and model; who has trained in both Toronto (G.B.C. Theatre) and London, UK (L.A.M.D.A.). Canadian credits include: Eigengrau (Here for Now Theatre), The Baby (The Storefront Theatre), and Edmond (The Storefront Theatre). Film and T.V. credits include: BARBELLE (Bell Media/Boss & Co. Ltd.), The Handmaid’s Tale (MGM/Hulu), and Grand Army (Netflix). Along with working as a performer and writer, Olivia has worked as a producer and content creator for compelling companies like: Boss & Co. Ltd. (Toronto), The Storefront Theatre (Toronto), Soulpepper Theatre (Toronto), and Here for Now Theatre (Stratford). Olivia's budding film production company, 2Skins Entertainment, is currently developing a mini-series, In Real Love, exploring love and sex in a post-apocalyptic world - set to be filmed in isolation this fall. She is proud and honoured to be reprising her role as Doc in Whack!, for the revolutionary Here For Now Open-Air Festival.
Siobhan O’Malley is thrilled to be joining Here For Now for her second season. She will be playing Rory in the Canadian premiere of A Hundred Words for Snow as well as Rue in the re-mount of Whack!. Siobhan trained at The Lir, Ireland’s National Academy of Dramatic Art. Her past credits include Pygmalion (Guild Festival Theatre), Mary of Shanty Bay (Theatre by the Bay), Mary’s Wedding, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Festival Players of Prince Edward County), Much Ado About Nothing (The Secret Shakespeare Series), Love and Information, In the Next Room, By the Bog of Cats, As You Like It, and Uncle Vanya (The Lir).