Marinara

Every year, the Facelli family come together to cook pasta alla marinara. They catch up with each other, talk about their lives and remember about the country they left behind.

This is a game about family, food and emigration, in which you'll cook and eat a meal together. Everyone brings an ingredient and we'll make characters (and taste the ingredients) at the start.

You'll play one of the three generations of the Facelli family, who emigrated from "the Old Country", which is loosely based on Italy. We'll explore their mixed feelings about the Old Country and their feeling of displacement, of never quite feeling at home in Britain.

We're aiming for an authentic tone, which captures both the joys and tensions of family coming together: the time is neither saccharine nor dramatic nor very serious, but something in between.

There won't be many pre-game materials, since we'll do it all on the day.

Dress in modern clothes, either smart or casual. Since we're making characters on the day, it's not really a game where you can costume for a particular character. Please avoid stereotypes, especially Italian ones: no Mafia members or gangster costumes, please!

We'll taste food at the start and eat about 5pm. So I'd suggest a light lunch beforehand and you might not want dinner.

If you have dietary requirements, let me know. Pasta alla marinara is vegan, if that helps.

After the game, we'll need to clear up and run the dishwasher. We'll try and do this within the timeslot, but if the game runs until 6, then we'll need people to stay behind for 15-20 minutes and make the place clean. You'll have eaten dinner, of course, so you probably won't need to eat afterwards.