Due Dozzine di Rose Scarlatte

Due Dozzine di Rose Scarlatte is an Italian play by Aldo De Benedetti (1892-1970) [1].

(The title written Due dozzine di rose scarlatte in Italian.)

The original text

A comedy of errors about a couple, Marina and Alberto, whose marriage is losing freshness and falling into a routine. The wife goes on a trip to take on her own while her husband woos a charming countess with a bunch of flowers, signing the card as "Misterioso" ("Mysterious"). However his wife finds the flowers and assumed they are for her. This results is all kinds of misunderstandings and tensions.

First performed at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on 10th March 1936, with Vittorio De Sica as one of the performers.

Translations and adaptations

Filmed in 1940 as Rose Scarlatte ("Red Roses")[2] is directed by Vittorio De Sica and Giuseppe Amato, scripted by De Benedetto and starring De Sica, Renée Saint-Cyr, and Vivi Gioi. It was released on 16 April 1940 in Italy.

The popular farce has since been filmed a number of times in Italian, usually as Due dozzine di rose scarlatte, e.g. directed in 1956 by Alberto Gagliardelli, in 1966 by F. Bollini and in 1982 by Davide Montemurri.

The play was adapted and translated into English from the Italian text as Two Dozen Red Roses by Kenneth Horne (1900-1975)[3] and first performed at the Lyric Theatre, London, on 25 May 1949. The text published by Dramatists Play Service, 1953 [4].

Translated into Afrikaans (probably from the English) as Twee Dosyn Rooi Rose by Jocelyn de Bruyn and published as a performance text by DALRO in 1969.