What happens when you discover that you are the direct descendant of La Brigantessa, a southern Italian leader who opposed Giuseppe Garibaldi’s mission to unite Italy back in 1860? And… that you happen to have the same name as her? If you are Montreal playwright Michaela Di Cesare you write a play about it!
Mickey & Joe (Good. Bad. Ugly. Dirty) is a modern-day spaghetti-western-style play that showcases a standoff between Dirty Mickey, a resistance fighter from the dark Southern underbelly of 19th century Italy who is currently trapped in limbo with her sworn enemy, Joe, a golden boy of the Risorgimento who is forever remembered as a political hero. The story finds Joe’s legacy threatened by the outlaw who was silenced, murdered and erased for his benefit.
“When I began this project, I couldn’t imagine the significance it would have, both in terms of current events and my personal life. The people from a large portion of what we call the South of Italy believed their land was stolen during unification. For them, it was a war of colonization in which their land was annexed. Many of the resistors were deported, imprisoned, or executed—sound familiar? And now I have a daughter who is a Di Cesare too. Through both the play and my baby, Michelina won’t be forgotten,” Di Cesare explains.
Michelina Di Cesare was born in 1841 in Caspoli, now known as the province of Caserta in southern Italy. She was known as La Brigantessa and was one of the leaders of the Southern Italian brigands who fought against the unification of Italy. She was killed in 1868 by a group of soldiers missioned to seek out and kill those opposed to Garibaldi.
Our modern-day Michelina Di Cesare is an established playwright and performer who holds dual-citizenship and whose mother was born in Calabria. Di Cesare’s previous works include: Extra/Beautiful/U, featured as part of the Brave New Looks Selection at the Centaur Theatre in 2023, and Successions which premiered at the Centaur Theatre in 2018, winning the META for Outstanding New Text that same year. Di Cesare’s debut play, 8 Ways My Mother Was Conceived, made its Montreal premiere at the 2011 Montreal Fringe Festival.
The team assembled for this project is what Di Cesare lovingly labels as “on purpose by accident.” The ensemble features first, second and third-generation Italian talent. Di Cesare, who also plays Mickey, met director Daniele Bartolini while she was workshopping an early version of the play in Toronto. The duo got an opportunity to present scenes from the play in Italy in the summer of 2023. Bartolini, a native of Florence, suggested they hire a local actor he knew. Enter actor Matteo Cremon. The presentation went well and there were talks of premiering and touring the play in Italy. Then, Di Cesare found out she was pregnant.
Fast forward to April of 2025. The original trio are back together in Montreal for the world premiere of Mickey & Joe, running from May 17 to 25, 2025, at the Mirella and Lino Saputo Theatre.
“Daniel thought that it’s a perfect alchemy between the two of us. So here we are!” Di Cesare explains.
Joining the team are Montreal actor-turned-filmmaker Davide Chiazzese, who is designing the video projections, and Italian native (now living in Montreal) Andrea Gozzi as sound designer. Sabrina Louise Miller (set and costume design) and Cara Rebecca (fight and intimacy coordinator) both identify as one-half third generation Italian-Canadians. Rounding out the team are stage manager Ava Bishop and lighting designer Sarah Mansikka.
The play is produced by Theatre Ouest End, with co-artistic directors Ann Lambert and Laura Mitchell at the helm, in partnership with the Italian-Canadian Community Foundation.
“It’s a play about the unification of Italy, but in fact it’s about my ancestor who fought against Garibaldi and was brutally slaughtered. It’s about revenge. The audience will experience violence, tears, and laughter, I hope!” Di Cesare comments.
“During our table reading there was loads of laughter. Someone suggested that maybe we should promote this play as a comedy. Maybe we should have!” she muses.
Mickey & Joe (Good. Bad. Ugly. Dirty) runs from May 17 to 24, 2025, at the Mirella and Lino Saputo Theatre, inside the Leonardo da Vinci Centre in Montreal’s borough of St-Leonard. The May 24th matinee will be followed by a panel discussion with CBC’s Sabrina Marandola as moderator. For tickets, please visit cldv.tuxedobillet.com.
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