"The Syndicate," or "Il Sindaco Del Rione Sanita," is a witty dark comedy set in 1960s Naples. This new translation by Mike Poulton portrays De Filippo's classic combination of pathos with farce in a newly accessible and contemporary version.
Honest young Antonio Barracano stabs a brutal night-watchman to death. With the help of a 'Godfather' he is smuggled out of Naples to hide in New York. Convicted of the murder in his absence but safe overseas, he quickly acquires wealth and a reputation for ruthlessness.
Returning to Naples, he uses his new status to quash his conviction and is soon feared but respected throughout the city, making it his life's work to provide a form of rough justice for the criminals of Naples who have no other access to law.
He rules the Naples underbelly with a rod of iron but when a respectable but poor young man decides to murder his father and comes to Don Antonio for advice, the Neapolitan 'Godfather' emerges from the shadows to make the young man's father an offer he can't refuse
The comedy grows blacker as 'respectable' Naples collides with its criminal underworld.

Filumena Marturano is a retired prostitute. Unbeknown to her faithless lover, Domenico, Filumena has three adult sons and has been using his money to pay for their upbringing. Feigning near death, Filumena persuades Domenico to marry her, thereby providing a legitimate name for her sons. When Domenico realizes the trick, he tries to engineer an annulment.

Timberlake Wertenbaker's vibrant new version of Filippo's modern classic premiered in London at the Piccadilly Theatre in a production directed by Sir Peter Hall and starring Judi Dench and Michael Pennington.

Filumena has lived with Domenico for twenty five years, but is to be thrown over for a younger woman. So she pretends to be dying and inveigles him into a "deathbed marriage." When he proves the marriage to be null and void, she informs him she has three grown sons which she has supported by stealing from him and that one of them is his (she won't say which).5 women, 8 men

Plays by one of Italy's greatest dramatists Eduardo de Filippo was one of Italy's leading popular dramatists, a fearless social critic, a supreme man of the theatre, and a humane and compassionate writer. The four plays in this volume present different facets of his prolific output, which focused on the lives of the Neapolitan people, their dubious cunning nourished by centuries of hunger, their fantasies and their love of life. The Local Authority, Grand Magic and Filumena Marturano are translated by Carlo Ardito, and Napoli Milionaria was translated by Peter Tinniswood for the Royal National Theatre's production in 1991.