Filumena, a theatrical classic

"Filumena Marturano" is a snippet of life, a domestic story among many others in the bustling city of Naples. In an elegant house in the southern city, we sneak in through a partially open window and come face to face with a scene of a terrible marital crisis. The comedy is served, in medias res, Domenico Soriano hits his head ( "Crazy! Crazy! Crazy! A hundred times, a thousand times!") and Filumena struts victoriously because she has set in motion a matrimonial plan that will change the fate of the entire family.

De Filippo wrote it in one go in 1946. In just 12 days, he had it completed, and on November 9 of that same year, it premiered at the Teatro Politeama in Naples, with De Filippo himself in the role of Domenico and his sister Titina as Filumena. "Il successo è stato pieno," said Il Giornale the next day (Archivi di Teatro Napoli). It is probably the work of this theater genius that has transcended the most internationally and has had two film adaptations, one of which was adapted and starred by the De Filippo siblings (1951), and the other brought to the big screen under the famous title "Marriage Italian Style," with Sophia Loren as Filumena Marturano (1964).

"Filumena Marturano" is also a beloved work in our country. It first arrived at Teatre Borràs in 1951 in a Spanish version by Leandro Navarro with the Pepita Serrador Company, which had premiered that same season at the now-defunct Teatro Fontalba in Madrid. It was also staged in 1995 at the Teatre Goya in Barcelona, this time with a translation by Alfred Lucchetti and directed by Frederic Roda. More recently, in 2012, Teatre del Sol in Sabadell produced it with direction by Ramon Ribalta.

It is difficult to determine whether it is a comedy or a drama. De Filippo himself once said, "The world is essentially a great stage, and life is a comedy, happy or sad, depending on the circumstances. To live, we must adapt to perform the comedy," words that echo those of Hamlet. Whether happy or sad, we prefer the audience to directly encounter this domestic comedy, which is the life of Filumena Marturano and the family and neighbors that surround her.