Madrina

Coburg, Melbourne, 1976. At Sydney Road Used Cars, Paloma—known as Madrina—has established a position of authority within a hard, male-dominated world. Following Simon’s murder, however, his ghost—or perhaps her own troubled conscience—returns to challenge the stories she has told herself about power, loyalty and survival. As past and present collide, staff, customers and remembered figures expose the personal cost of maintaining control. Madrina is a darkly theatrical crime drama combining humour, memory and moral reckoning to explore guilt, ambition, family allegiance and whether anyone can escape the consequences of the life they have created.

Madrina explores power, loyalty, betrayal, guilt, corruption and the conflict between public respectability and concealed criminality. It examines exploitation, moral responsibility, gender and authority, and the personal cost of maintaining a double life. Through Paloma and the murdered Simon, the play asks whether power can silence a guilty conscience—and whether anyone can escape the consequences of the choices they have made.

A full-length, scene-based dark comedy-drama set primarily inside a second-hand car dealership. The action moves between the car yard’s respectable daily business and Paloma’s concealed role as the feared leader of a criminal organisation. Simon, a murdered defence lawyer and police informant, repeatedly freezes the action and speaks directly to the audience. He later intrudes into Paloma’s reality as the physical embodiment of her guilt and conscience. Humour, criminal intrigue and psychological confrontation gradually expose the connections between Paloma, her employees and Melbourne’s underworld.

Madrina is set in Coburg, Melbourne, in 1976. During this period, Melbourne was becoming increasingly multicultural through post-war migration, including the establishment of large Italian and Calabrian communities. The play places its fictional criminal organisation within this changing social environment, contrasting suburban business life with hidden networks of gambling, extortion, drug trafficking and corruption. Paloma’s second-hand car dealership provides a respectable public identity while concealing her position as “Madrina”—Italian for “godmother”—and the feared boss of Melbourne’s Calabrian Mafia. The characters and central criminal story are dramatic inventions created for the play.

Written by Marty MonStar in 2023, Madrina has been presented at Kew Court House in Melbourne. The production uses an ensemble cast with extensive doubling to move between Paloma’s used-car business and the Melbourne underworld. Its combination of crime, comedy, supernatural storytelling and 1970s popular culture supports a bold, fast-moving theatrical production.

A stylised 1970s used-car office with period furniture and props. Lighting and sound support supernatural appearances and underworld action.

Recommended for mature audiences.

Contains coarse and misogynistic language, organised crime, murder, threats, extortion, coercive moneylending, underground gambling, heroin importation and distribution, police corruption and references to sexual activity. The play also depicts grief, psychological distress, exploitation, intimidation and the consequences of criminal violence.