About the Play:

Winner of 1973 Best British Play of the Year Award

Saturday, Sunday, Monday is a full-length comedic drama by the great Italian playwright Eduardo de Filippo. Marital misunderstandings, a lover's quarrel, and generational conflict escalate as passions flare during the traditional Sunday dinner with family and friends. Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall adapt Eduardo de Filippo's sparkling contemporary Italian commedia dell'arte, which looks at the trial and tribulations of a well-off family in Naples.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday reflects three days in the lives of a postwar Italian family. Set in Naples in 1959, Saturday, we meet the extended family of demanding matriarch Mama Rosa and her blustering husband Peppino in Rosa's grand Neapolitan kitchen and are introduced to the basic dramatic conflicts while the traditional Sunday meal is being prepared. Peppino suspects his wife Rosa of infidelity and she is brooding because he spurned her cooking and praised a meal prepared by his daughter in law. The character rich cast also includes a crusty grandfather, a formidable widowed aunt on the make for the family doctor, her mama's boy son and a "liberated" daughter in law. During the traditional Sunday dinner Peppino's and Rosa's tempers flare amidst a gathering of family and friends. Add to their feud generational conflicts, a lover's quarrel, humorous insights on momism and bourgeois Italian life and the meal is unforgettable. Of course, all is forgiven by Monday.

This Italian family drama was originally written in 1959 and produced that same year in Rome as Sabato, domenica e lunedi. The first English production of this highly praised version by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall went to the National Theatre in London in 1973 with Laurence Olivier heading the cast. It won the London Drama Critic's prize and was hailed by the Daily Telegraph as a hilarious comedy "seething with life, rich and nutty as a fruitcake." The play received its North American premiere in 1981 at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway in New York City. The play has been performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 7 female, 10 male

What people say:

"I liked the play this side of idolatry." — The New York Times

"The dialogue is funny, the pace is fast...Has got what it takes." — Women's Wear Daily

About the Playwright:

Eduardo de Filippo (1900-1984) was an Italian actor, playwright, screenwriter, author and poet. Considered one of the great Italian playwrights, his unique contribution to international theatre is his love and understanding of Naples and its people, and his great gift for expressing these, both as playwright and actor. In 1981 he was made a life senator of the Italian Republic. When he died, he lay in state in the Roman Senate, and 30,000 people paid him homage. For the Italians he had achieved legendary status in his own lifetime.