Naples, Italy's Teatro Mercadante will present the TFANAproduction at their stage for a limited one-week engagement, Jan. 24-29, 2006. The production will be performed using the English translation by Village Voice critic Michael Feingold, as on Off-Broadway.
"By presenting Theatre for a New Audience’s American production of Questi Fantasmi, [the show's title in Italian] played by John Turturro, in original staging by Roman Paska, Teatro Mercadante offers Naples – Eduardo de Filippo’s native city – the opportunity to reflect on Filippo’s international impact," said Teatro Mercadante artistic director Ninni Cutaia.
The new translation of Eduardo De Filippo's Questi Fantasmi! "is what would have resulted if Chekhov and Pirandello had sat down together to write the screenplay for a Bob Hope haunted house movie," said translator Feingold in a release. The work set in 1946's Naples, the story follows a down-on-his-luck married man who becomes caretaker of an old palace the is supposedly haunted.
Turturro starred opposite Helen Hunt in the Broadway staging of Yasmina Reza's Life x 3. He is known for his film work in "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?," "Barton Fink" and "Quiz Show." As a director, he headed the upcoming movie musical "Romance & Cigarettes" starring James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Mary-Louise Parker, Eddie Izzard, Elaine Stritch, Cady Huffman, Tonya Pinkins, Bobby Cannavale and Amy Sedaris among others.
The director-actor will lead a company that also includes his cousin Aida Turturro ("The Sopranos," A Streetcar Named Desire), Didi Conn ("Grease," Lost in Yonkers), Max Casella (The Lion King, "Ed Wood"), Felix Blaska (The Garden of Earthly Delights), Bill Bowers (The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Lion King), Rocco Sisto (Amadeus, The Harlequin Studies) and Francesca Vannucci (the forthcoming Martha Clarke Pirandello Project). Roman Paska directed the staging of the TFANA-commissioned translation of the work which began previews April 2 at The Duke on 42nd Street for a run slated through May 8.
The design team for Souls of Naples features Donna Zakowska (set and costume), Stephen Strawbridge (lighting), John T. La Barbera (sound and music) and puppets by Roman Paska.
Playwright De Filippo penned more than 50 plays and is known to American audiences for Filumena, Saturday Sunday Monday, and his film "Marriage Italian-Style," adapted from his play, Matrimonio all'italiana. He originally performed in the role Turturro will take on.
