In Napoli, Brooklyn, playing at Roundabout Theatre Company through September 3rd, Playwright Meghan Kennedy gets us started with a mimed prologue in which a family sits at the dining table, enjoying a meal and sharing the news of the day. Lights out, then up, as the dad, Nic Muscolino – played by Michael Rispoli – appears, ready for a day’s work at a paint shop in the neighborhood. His wife, Ludavica, and his daughters – Francesca, Tina, and Vita – will join us momentarily.

The three, as the play unfolds, will clearly let us know how differently they feel about their background, their conditioning, even their Catholic upbringing. Superficially they follow the customs of their parents, but as they grow into womanhood, the path of each diverges in drastic and damaging ways. It takes a surprising neighborhood disaster to serve as a marker for the day that each made decisions that caused a rupture in the family’s structure.