Books by Eduardo De Filippo

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

These plays include "Napoli Milionaria" produced at the Royal National Theatre in 1991. Eduardo De Filippo was one of Italy's leading popular dramatists. His plays focus on the lives of the Neapolitan people, their cunning nourished by centuries of hunger, their fantasies and their love of life.

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.

Filumena is a former Neopolitan prostitute who has had three sons by three different fathers. As her sons mature she feels the pressing need to become respectable and so begins to look for a man to marry her, ensuring legitimacy for her family.