This book introduces five on-act plays by Eduardo De Filippo to English-speaking readers and audiences for the first time. "My aim," Mimi Gisolfi DAponte writes, "has been to render in American English the words and voices and unfailing humor of the originals." Collectively, these works bring into focus the atmosphere of pre- and post-World War II Naples. "His viewpoint," writes DAponte, "was that of the common people, usually of Southern Italy, as well as the playwright-moralist whose major concern, from an extraordinarily young age, was consistently social justice." The playwright mixed comedy and tragedy, and has been likened to Charlie Chaplin. "The triumph of the translations collected in this volume," writes Ron Jenkins, professor of theater at Wesleyan University, "is that they preserve the idiosyncratic quirks of Eduardos originals. "DAponte has done a great service for the American theater community." DAponte is professor emerita of theatre at Baruch College and the Cuny Graduate Center. She is a contributing editor of Western European Stages and co-president of the Pirandello Society of America, and is the author of Teatro Religioso e Rituale Della Penisola Sorrentina e la Costiera Amalfitana.
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