The Syndicate
Eduardo De Filippo in a new version by Mike Poulton
The Syndicate
Honest young Antonio Barracano stabs a brutal night-watchman to death. With the help of a ‘Godfather’ he is smuggled out of Naples to hide in New York. Convicted of the murder in his absence but safe overseas, he quickly acquires wealth and a reputation for ruthlessness. Returning to Naples, he uses his new status to quash his conviction and is soon feared but respected throughout the city, making it his life’s work to provide a form of rough justice for the criminals of Naples who have no other access to law. He rules the Naples underbelly with a rod of iron but when a respectable but poor young man decides to murder his father and comes to Don Antonio for advice, the Neapolitan ‘Godfather’ emerges from the shadows to make the young man’s father an offer he can’t refuse.
Minerva Theatre: 21 July - 20 August 2011
Malvern Festival Theatre: 23-27 August 2011
Cambridge Arts Theatre: 29 Aug. - 3 Sept. 2011
Theatre Royal Bath: 5-10 September 2011
Milton Keynes Theatre: 12-17 September 2011
3.6 out of 5 based on 9 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Location |
Touring |
| Venue |
Minerva Theatre |
| Director |
Sean Mathias |
| Cast |
Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington |
| From |
July 2011 |
| Until |
September 2011 |
| Box Office |
|
| |
Honest young Antonio Barracano stabs a brutal night-watchman to death. With the help of a ‘Godfather’ he is smuggled out of Naples to hide in New York. Convicted of the murder in his absence but safe overseas, he quickly acquires wealth and a reputation for ruthlessness. Returning to Naples, he uses his new status to quash his conviction and is soon feared but respected throughout the city, making it his life’s work to provide a form of rough justice for the criminals of Naples who have no other access to law. He rules the Naples underbelly with a rod of iron but when a respectable but poor young man decides to murder his father and comes to Don Antonio for advice, the Neapolitan ‘Godfather’ emerges from the shadows to make the young man’s father an offer he can’t refuse.
Minerva Theatre: 21 July - 20 August 2011
Malvern Festival Theatre: 23-27 August 2011
Cambridge Arts Theatre: 29 Aug. - 3 Sept. 2011
Theatre Royal Bath: 5-10 September 2011
Milton Keynes Theatre: 12-17 September 2011
Reviews
The Evening Standard
Henry Hitchings
"The play itself creates a buzzing menace. But this fizzles out; its optimism rings hollow, and the plotting is a little clunky. It works best as a study of a complex character, and McKellen ensures that this is realised stunningly."
03/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Daily Express
Neil Norman
"It is a vivid depiction of a Neapolitan household and director Sean Mathias keeps it bubbling like a melodramatic farce - though not at the expense of its humanity."
03/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Stage
Mark Shenton
"The play and its highly stylized production are like a cross between The Sopranos and Almodovar, providing a bustling portrait of lives bound together by family associations, past criminality and future threats. And just as The Sopranos showed the man beneath the monster and mobster, so De Filippo’s play provides a rich, densely-textured picture of a man’s sometimes twisted but still defiant moral code, and McKellen offers a fascinating study in his multiple contradictions."
03/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Times
Dominic Maxwell
"When [Ian McKellen] is on stage, which is most of the time, the mood is electric. When he’s not, the show is intriguing but fallible."
03/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Independent on Sunday
Kate Bassett
"The Syndicate is not a well-made play or stylistically uniform. You may wonder where it’s going narratively, with several subplots lacking developmental momentum. But the meandering can be quirkily refreshing too ... Pennington and McKellen are a splendidly lived-in, veteran duo ... The trouble is, Mathias hasn't coaxed great performances out of his younger cast members. "
07/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Daily Mail
Quentin Letts
"With the grey moustache and crinkly eyes and creaky voice [Ian McKellen] is rather more like Harold Macmillan, though with a flattish nose. Supermac as Superwhack, the criminal boss who kills his challengers. Sir Ian is always worth watching but in this daring show - risque because it flirts with the idea that the mafia are a force for justice - it is his fellow veteran, Michael Pennington, who takes the garlands."
03/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Daily Telegraph
Charles Spencer
"Despite a few strong moments The Syndicate proves a disappointingly soft-centred and only intermittently gripping play, and this lavish production seems both an unnecessary indulgence and a waste of McKellen’s formidable talent. "
03/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Guardian
Michael Billington
"Although the play is clearly the work of a good man who understood Naples and its people and who devoutly wished for a better world, it's an evening where you rejoice more in the acting than in the over-optimistic message."
03/08/2011
Read Full Review
The Independent
Michael Coveney
"It is like Alan Ayckbourn with layers of political corruption and strips of lasagne ... The big problem, which Sean Mathias's well-cast production doesn't fully overcome, is that we must somehow experience the rich, pulsating texture of these lives and this place in a rhythm that feels natural and convincing, all over the course of one day. "
05/08/2011
Read Full Review