Filumena Marturano

Filumena Marturano (sometimes staged as Filumena) [1] is a 1946 play by Italian playwright and philosopher Eduardo de Filippo (1900–1984).

It is his best-known work and arguably his finest comedy-drama, drenched in Neapolitan atmosphere and full of entanglements at once cynical and romantic. In the heat of late-1940s Naples, Filumena Maraturano lies on her deathbed awaiting her marriage to Domenico Soriano, the man who has kept her as his mistress for twenty-seven years. But no sooner has the priest completed the ceremony than Filumena makes a miraculous recovery. As he reels in shock, Domenico discovers that this brilliant, iron-willed woman has a few more surprises for him. [2]

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English by Keith Waterhouse [3] and Willis Hall [4] in 1977.

Translated from English into Afrikaans by Herman Pretorius as Filumena (or alternatively 'n Moeder bly 'n Moeder! in 1982 .

Performance history in South Africa

Presented by PACT in the State Theatre, October 1981, directed by Francois Swart, starring Gordon Mulholland, Wilna Snyman.

1982: Staged by the Universiteitsteater Stellenbosch in the H.B. Thom Theatre in September, directed by Ria Olivier, with Maria van der Linde (Filumena), Elzette Pretorius (Rosalia), Herman Pretorius (Domenico), Neels Engelbrecht (Alfredo), Ilzabeth Uys (Diana), Tossie van den Heever (Lucia), Johan Rademan (Umberto), Albert Maritz (Riccardo), Anton Smith (Michele), Noël Roos (Nocella), Karen Usmar-Blake (Teresina), Johann van Heerden (Hoofkelner) and Freddie Aylward (Kelner).

Sources

UTS theatre programme, September 1982.

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