Filumena

Productions

Filumena Marturano initially was written as a tribute to Eduardo's sister Titina De Filippo, a famous Neapolitan theatrical actress, who took the title role in the first production in Naples in 1946. The play followed the success of Napoli milionaria, which Eduardo had written and which had premiered the year before to general acclaim. However, the first night of the new play proved a disappointment and received lukewarm notices from the Neapolitan theatre-going public. Titina decided to address this by following her own instincts and performing as she felt the role required. She was proved right. The play achieved great success, so great in fact that for many years afterwards Titina was called Filumena in Italy rather than her own.