Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Drama of De Filippo

1960; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 3; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mdr.1960.0039

1712-5286

Ferdinando D. Maurino,

Theatre and Performance Studies

THE DRAMA OF DE FILIPPO AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II the plays of Eduardo De Filippo, a Neapolitan writer, began to attract not only the audiences and readers in Italy but also those abroad. Eric Bentleyl and Lander MacCiintock2 wrote briefly on him; and a few years ago Thornton Wilder3 stated that De Filippo was his favorite contemporary dramatic author. Previously De Filippo had been known mainly as a comic actor whose plays were considered as vehicles for his acting. In fact, when in 1955 Theatre Arts devoted an issue to the Italian theater, he was treated chiefly as an actor.4 This is, however, no longer the case. After reading and studying his drama, one may well believe that a new voice and a great playwright has arisen. The maschera of a new Pulcinella has fallen, and the humor has turned to grave considerations of.the problems of life, not only in Naples but also in the universe. As Pirandello forsook his Sicilian characterisics in favor of universal concepts, and as Di Giacomo left the Neapolitan environment for a wider world,5 so De Filippo progressed from presentations of local Neapolitan foibles to profound reflections on man's problems. Like many contemporary writers, he has at times dealt with realistic topics of Naples during the occupation, and he has injected into his work a pathos seldom felt in other contemporary dramatic works. One thinks principally of his Napoli milionaria (Naples Full of Millions), and of some of the poetry from his Il paese di Pulcinella (The Land of Pulcinella). Through these works he made his contribution to postwar realism with a bitter, at times sarcastic, and always pathetic, humor. But what begins as realism becomes towards the end of the play a double reality, an illusion, or an untruth. Thus, a father who inveighs against the disrespectful behavior of today's youths, including his own son, suddenly loses his power of speech; but he only simulates his loss as a hopeless protest against modern society.6 Unlike the realism of Moravia, Vittorini, Marotta, Levi, Pavese, Pratolini, and other contemporary Italian authors known in America, De Filippo's realism is like that of Pirandello's: an excuse to evade realism itself. In fact, the truer De Filippo, both by natural propensity and by training, has always leaned toward the abstract, the illusional, and the metaphysical, as is evident from his short plays before World War II when his mind 1. In Seareh of Theatre (New York, 1953), pp. 281-95. 2. The Age of Pirandello (Bloomington, 1951), pp. 124-27. 3. In College English, Vol. XVII (Nov., 1955), ll9. See moreover same (Dec., 1955), 164, Wilder's statement concerning the difficulty of translating De Filippo. 4. (May, 1955). 5. See my S. Di Giacomo and Neapolitan Dialectal Literature (New York, 1951), p. 133 ff. 6. Mia famiglia (1955) which was praised by Vito Pandolfi, "Un umorismo doloroso," in Slparia (March, 1956),3. 348 1961 DRAMA OF DE FILIPPO 349 was being formed in the school of Pirandello in whose troupe he was an actor, and from his recent works in which he has attained a far greater artistic skill. This revival of Pirandellian influence on the Italian stage is duplicated in other countries, especially in France where the shadow of that modem master can be discemed to the extent that Lerminier recently wrote, "Pirandello est present partout."1 His influence has been felt by such writers as Salacrou, Neveux, and even Camus. Among the Spaniards, at least two have imitated him: Alejandro Casona and, Victor Iriarte.8 Italian critics have, of course, reminded De Filippo of that influence -an influence the Neapolitan playwright is reluctant to admit.9 When, in the summer of 1958, I told him that I saw Pirandellian traces in certain abstract, fantastic, and illusive situations, he seemed slightly annoyed. With a typical Neapolitan gesture of his hand, he called to my attention that such interpretations of the subjectivity of reality "are as old as Plato." Thus, he did not deny the similarity of themes or situations, but he denied that he imitates Pirandello. His is the same argument given by Casona10 when Casona was...