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by Eduardo De Filippo, translated & adapted by Donato Santeramo & Antoni Cimolino, directed by Antoni Cimolino

Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford

August 22–October 24, 2026

Raffaele: “The Neapolitan Comedy Theatre”

Saturday, Sunday, Monday is a feast of fine acting. The production not only captures the atmosphere of a particular time and place (Naples in the 1950s), but it also captures the spirit of an entire community. The play overall is a comedy of character, but when the action suddenly veers toward tragedy, it is the community that rallies round to heal a rift that might have become a fatal wound. Large-scale comedies, except for those of Shakespeare, are rarely produced nowadays. So, it is a true pleasure to see such a comedy by Eduardo De Filippo on the Avon Stage acted and directed with such nuance and passion that it leaves you glowing with happiness.

The action follows three days in the life of the Priore family in Naples, each act taking place in sequence as per the title. On Saturday we meet Rosa, the matriarch of the family, as she prepares the ragù for the pasta that the extended family will eat at their weekly Sunday dinner. Rosa’s husband Peppino comes home early from the clothing store he runs. He is agitated and withdrawn, this mood only intensifying as the day goes on. We won’t know what is eating away at him until Sunday.

We do notice that two people in particular annoy him. One is his own son Rocco, who is going to open his own clothing store that will cater to a more affluent clientele than does his father’s store. Peppino ought to wish him well, but he feels betrayed. The other irritant is his accountant, Luigi Ianniello. Unlike Peppino, Luigi remembers Rosa’s birthday and other important dates in her life and buys her gifts including a sweater in her favourite colour. Though Luigi is happily married, Peppino easily construes Luigi’s friendliness toward Rosa as flirting.

De Filippo surrounds Peppino with a wide array of family and friends who in various ways reflect the situation in which Peppino sees himself. His daughter Giulianella and her fiancé Federico seems constantly to be finding excuses not to be with each other. Peppino feels Rosa’s behaviour with Luigi makes Peppino look like a fool. Peppino’s brother Raffaele works in a bank by day but literally acts like a clown on the weekend. He plays the role of Pulcinella, a traditional character in Neapolitan commedia dell’arte. Meanwhile, Peppino’s sister Amelia, is a widow who feels no shame in having had an affair while her husband was alive. In fact, she is planning to write a book about it. Having nursed her late husband “until he died”, she now has turned her energy to keeping her son Attilio a perpetual invalid. Rosa’s father Antonio provides an comically negative model of old age. Antonio still has his old hat-making equipment and, if not stopped, will remold anyone’s hat to the style popular in his day.

Even the maid’s brother Michele appears as an extreme version of Peppino. Michele was in a prisoner of war camp in World War II but has found no good way to vent the anger that has built up because of the experience. He has shaved his head and goes about provoking men to make fun of him which then gives him the excuse to beat them up. It is clear from Act 1 that Peppino has pernicious notion in his mind that he cannot or does not want to express. In Act 2 we find out that this anger has been building up for four months. When he finally voices this anger, it shatters everyone around him.

In popular media Italian-American families are often portrayed as constantly swayed by extreme emotions and fighting and shouting because of it. Happily, you won’t find that cliché in De Filippo. His characters may raise their voices in frustration or anger, but so would any other characters in similar situations. In fact, the theme of Saturday, Sunday, Monday is the exact opposite of what one might expect from popular caricatures of Italians. De Filippo looks at two characters, Rosa and Peppino, who fail to communicate with each other and have retreated into silence.

It is good fortune in programming that both Othello and Saturday, Sunday, Monday should appear in the same season. Both may be studies in jealousy — the one tragic, the other comic — but De Filippo’s play demonstrates that no Iago is necessary to turn a loving husband into a man consumed with jealousy. All that is need is lack of communication and the misinterpretation of minor events. Because of their position, the central couple of Othello is cut off from the larger world. In De Filippo, the central couple is surrounded by the society of friends and family who all work together to save the central couple.

While Peppino’s anger crystallizes in the form of jealousy, De Filippo makes clear that there are other reasons that he feels he is being ignored and left behind. On is that the rival store that Rocco is opening makes him feel old-fashioned and behind the times. The vision of Antonio roaming the house is a view of aging he doesn’t want to acknowledge. The very title of the play announces the progression of time, and Peppino feels that this progression is leaving him behind. Antonio says he doesn’t have “many more Sundays left”. Seen from this point of view, the play has the much deeper theme of how best to use the time one has on earth.

When Peppino’s brother refers to the events of the play as worth of “The Neapolitan Comedy Theatre”, De Filippo further deepens the play through a reference to the theatrum mundi, best known in Shakespeare in Jaques’s speech “All the world’s a stage”, suggesting that what seems so real to us in this life is simply an illusion.

A play like this needs a director sensitive to its complexity. Antoni Cimolino has directed three previous plays by De Filippo at Stratford —  Filumena (1946) in 1997, Napoli Milionaria! (1945) in 2018 and Grand Magic (1948) in 2023. Cimolino knows how out of place any exaggeration or attempts to make the play funnier would be. He is also a master of directing the cast of 18, ensuring that all their actions and movements are as smooth and realistic as possible. In doing so, he draws superb ensemble work from the entire cast.

Graham Abbey gives an outstanding performance as Peppino. He knows how to make Peppino’s few words and long silences speak so loudly we can tell he is trying to repress thoughts so poisonous he is afraid to speak them aloud. When Peppino does speak, Abbey makes the effect shocking. Abbey skilfully transforms Peppino’s outrage into remorse and humiliation.

Rose Napoli, in her Stratford debut, is equally outstanding. She presents Rosa as a feisty, uncompromising woman animated by an energy that seems partly motivated by anger. Yet, Napoli later reveals a vulnerability underlying Rosa’s outward strength.

Gordon S. Miller plays Luigi as man who is kind and optimistic to a fault. His response to the threat of Liam Tobin’s wrathful Michele is comic in positivity. Even if Luigi is not seeking a relationship with Rosa, Miller nevertheless suggests that a real attraction accompanies Luigi’s attentiveness to her.

Of Peppino’s relatives, Rod Beattie is very funny as the aged Antonio. He delivers his lines with wry dryness and his scene of remodelling a man’s hat is hilarious. Geraint Wyn Davies plays Peppino’s brother Raffaele as a man filled with all the enthusiasm and joy of life that Peppino lacks.

Seana McKenna has a fine turn as Amelia, Peppino’s sister, who is proud of her own honesty and freedom but is still willing to take any such freedom away from her son Atllio. Josue Laboucane is consistently amusing as the simpering milquetoast Atillio until we realize that Amelia has made him that way and intends to keep him thus. We only hope that Atillio’s growing association with Raffaele will help him break free.

As Giulianella and her fiancé Federico, Katarina Fiallo as Maher Sinno gives us a typical pair of young people whose constant quarrelling may well stem from the fear of the commitment they have made to each other.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday is a large-scale comedy in terms of its size but is equally big-hearted. The ensemble really conveys the feeling of a small, coherent society on stage with all its foibles and all its virtues. To experience such a play so well directed and acted is truly a joy and will leave you with a lightened mood that will last long after the final curtain. If you can see only one play at the Stratford Festival this summer, make it this.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Jakob Ehman as Roberto Priore, Katarina Fiallos as Giulianella Priore, Rose Napoli as Rosa Priore, Gordon S. Miller as Luigi Ianniello, Jenna-Lee Hyde as Virginia, Michelle Giroux as Elena Ianniello, Seana McKenna as Aunt Amelia Priore and Michael Wamara as Cefercola; Rose Napoli as Rosa and Gordon S. Miller as Luigi Ianniello; Graham Abbey as Peppino, Rose Napoli as Rosa, Gordon S. Miller as Luigi Ianniello, Jakob Ehman as Roberto Priore, Michelle Giroux as Elena Ianniello, Emilio Vieiera as Rocco and Michael Wamara as Cefercola; Rose Napoli as Rosa Priore and Graham Abbey as Peppino. © 2026 David Hou.

For tickets visit: www.stratfordfestival.ca.