As the clouds darken and the nights draw in, summer has been given a new lease of life in Eduardo De Filippo’s Filumena at the Theatre Royal in Windsor. It’s a glorious sun-drenched confection about a wealthy Neapolitan trader coming to terms with his bed-hopping past and two women competing for his affections and cash.
Sean Mathias’s production teams Felicity Kendal up with Matthew Kelly, and, while the casting makes no qualms about how the target audience is mature Middle England, beneath the cosy facade it’s pretty racy stuff. Kendal in the role of the incumbent lover finds herself competing against a much younger usurper in Jodie Steele, but the older woman’s trump card is she had had three sons (George Banks, Gavin Fowler and Fabrizio Santino) but won’t say which one belongs to Kelly’s exasperated patriarch.
The adaptation of the work by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall is as light and refreshing as a glass of good champagne and Morgan Large’s set and costume design beautifully evoke warm summer days and nights in Italy. The chemistry between Kendal and Kelly is meanwhile sublime: these are two old stagers still at the top of their game.
It’s funny how even in a light comedy a line can suddenly move an audience and find unexpected resonance. We live of course in a time when so many media organisations and politicians are asking us to differentiate between children being blown to pieces in the Middle East and of that Kendal seems acutely aware when she says softly, but firmly: “Children are children, and they’re all equal.”
Filumena plays at Theatre Royal Windsor until 19 October ; Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford 22 – 26 October ; Cambridge Arts Theatre 5 – 9 November; Theatre Royal Bath 12 – 16 November; Richmond Theatre 19 – 23 November
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