Filumena, Theatre Royal, Windsor, review: Felicity Kendal enchants in this evergreen comedy of gender politics

Felicity Kendal (second from left) and Matthew kelly (behind her) in Filumena, at the Theatre Royal Windsor
Felicity Kendal (second from left) and Matthew kelly (behind her) in Filumena, at the Theatre Royal Windsor - Jack Merriman

We should vociferously applaud the decision to revive Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo’s classic 1946 Neapolitan comedy (and arguably his magnum opus) for the Windsor stage, given that it was last performed in the UK back in 2012. The author of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Napoli Milionaria, De Filippo (1900-1984) was one of Italy’s leading popular dramatists, renowned for his depictions of the lives of ordinary Neapolitans, and for celebrating their foibles, guile and ardent zest for life.

Set against the backdrop of a post-war Italy emerging from decades of fascism, and with the spectre of Naples’s crushing poverty looming large over the play, Filumena is a spry comedy of manners about gender politics and sexual double standards, paternity, blood ties and parental responsibilities, as well as a damning portrait of a patriarchal, phallocratic society.

An ageing, former prostitute, Filumena has had three sons by three different fathers. Now with her sons grown up, and feeling the acute need for respectability, she seeks to marry the wealthy Don Domenico, having been his mistress for 35 years, in order to ensure legitimacy for her children. After engineering a deathbed marriage, her ensuing remarkable recovery leads to Domenico’s efforts to annul his marriage to her – whereupon the action begins.

Filumena beautifully articulates the plight of the mistress who yearns to be finally legitimised, and of the mother who has selflessly sacrificed for her illegitimate sons, exhorting that all children are equally deserving of paternal recognition. Moreover, steeped in fervent Catholicism, it is also a play about the purpose of marriage, old age and the nature of conjugal felicity, directly addressing how women can navigate the suffocating social protocols inherent in the battle of the sexes.

Felicity Kendal mesmerises as the dissimulating eponymous heroine whose gamine beauty still entices. Complete with sultry Eartha Kitt purr, sensuous physicality and vulnerability, the 78-year-old is particularly good when recounting the privations of her slum childhood (reminiscent of Peter Sarstedt’s Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?) and her tragic descent into prostitution. Kendal artfully captures Filumena’s faultless moral compass, while society judges her harshly for her erstwhile occupation. Matthew Kelly convinces with histrionic pomposity as proud patrician Don Domenico, mixing grandeur and buffoonery, and his Damascene realisation that, despite his wealth and material success, his life is unfulfilled and empty is remarkably affecting.

Felicity Kendal and Matthew kelly in Filumena, at the Theatre Royal Windsor
Felicity Kendal and Matthew kelly in Filumena, at the Theatre Royal Windsor - Jack Merriman

Director Sean Mathias (who has prior form directing De Filippo) excels with this urbane, thoughtful and highly entertaining production, in which the play registers as anything but a quaint period piece. With a polished English translation by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, and an opulent, imposing and richly evocative set designed by Morgan Large, the audience are effortlessly transported to Italy’s balmy south, and left in no doubt as to why De Filippo is so lauded as a dramatist in his native Italy, and why he deserves to be much better known here.

Absorbing and deeply satisfying, full of genuine pathos, deft comic touches and Neapolitan sunshine, this show is the ideal antidote to the British autumnal blues, as well as a perfect invitation to focus on the redemptive power of love.

Until Oct 19 (theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk), then touring