SOURCE: Maurino, Ferdinando D. “The Drama of de Filippo.” Modern Drama 3, no. 4 (February 1961): 348-56.

In the following essay, Maurino presents an overview of de Filippo's plays, focusing on their Neapolitan themes.

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 Bentley¹ and Lander MacClintock² 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...