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“Filomena Marturano” is Love Cuban Style at Repertorio Español

November 6, 2022 by New York Latin Culture Magazine

Sandor Juan and Zulema Clares in 'Filomena Marturano.' Courtesy Michael Palma Mir / Repertorio Español.

Filomena Marturano: Un matrimonio a la Caribeña, Leyma López’ Cuban adaptation of the famous Italian romantic comedy, is in repertory at Repertorio Español in Kips Bay, Manhattan. For adults. From $15. repertorio.nyc 🇨🇺

Filomena Marturano

Filomena Marturano is the story of shopkeeper Domingo and his long-time live-in girlfriend Filomena. Many years ago Filomena was a prostitute. She has three sons from those days who don’t know that she is their mother.

When Domingo decides to marry young Diana who is hanging around the household as a nurse, Filomena pretends to be dying to get Domingo to marry her instead.

After the marriage, Filomena admits that she just wanted to give her children a family and tells her sons that she is their mother.

A furious Domingo has the marriage annulled, but Filomena tells him that one of the boys is his. He can’t figure out which one, so finally Domingo remarries Filomena and accepts all the boys as their father.

The happy ending is nice. It shows Caribbean pragmatism and the primacy of family.

Filomena Marturano has a Long Production History

Playwright Eduardo de Filippo wrote the play in Italian in 1946. He wrote it for his sister Titina de Filippo who was a famous theatre actress. Opening night didn’t go well, so Titina decided to play it the way she felt it. Her work was so popular that she became known as Filomena to the Italian public.

It was adapted into an Argentine film in 1950, and an Italian movie, “Marriage Italian Style,” starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in 1964. That production won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and later inspired the 1970s U.S. television show “Love American Style.”

Franco Zeffirelli directed an English theatre version in 1977 which ran on Broadway in 1980. A 1998 London version started Dame Judi Dench.

The story ran as an Italian miniseries in 2010.

Leyma López

Director Leyma López is currently the resident director at Repertorio Español. She is from San José de las Lajas in La Habana province in Cuba.

For Repertorio Español she has directed Por Gusto (For Pleasure), El Loco por Fuerza (Insane by Force), Hierba mala nunca muere (Bad Weeds Won’t Die), Aire Frío (Cold Air), La Fiaca, Valor, agravio y mujer (Courage, Betrayal, and a Woman Scorned), and La Celestina.

López is an ATI, ACE and HOLA awards nominee.

Eduardo de Filippo

Filippo is considered one of the most important Italian playwrights of the 20th century. He is best known for “Filumena Marturano” and “Napoli Milionaria” (1950).

latin theatre

Filed Under: Cuban, Italian, LATIN THEATRE, Repertorio Español

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