The Syndicate

Eduardo de Filippo

Translated by Mike Poulton

Minerva Theatre, Chichester 21st July - 20th August

http://www.cft.org.uk

Malvern Theatre 23rd-27th August

http://www.malvern-tickets.co.uk

Cambridge Arts Theatre 29th August-3rd September

http://www.cambridgeartstheatre.com

Theatre Royal Bath 5th-10th September

http://www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Milton Keynes Theatre 12th-17th September

http://www.ambassadortickets.com/2479/657/Milt on-Keynes/Milton-Keynes-Theatre/The-Syndicate-Tickets

There is a beautiful delicacy in Mr Pennington’s stage work .... the reason this production is worth catching is the economic brilliance of Mr Pennington

- Mail Online

Michael Pennington invests the Don’s sidekick with exactly the right air of terrified loyalty ...

- The Guardian

There is strong support from Michael Pennington as a decent doctor who finds himself trapped in McKellen’s service ...

- The Telegraph

... (a potent Michael Pennington) ... - The Evening Standard

... With Michael Pennington in superb form as Doctor Ragione .....we are treated to some marvellously entertaining interplay between these two actors....

- The Public Reviews

There’s a strong performance too from Michael Pennington as the Don’t faithful doctor, disgusted with his association with petty criminals and constantly threatening to leave, before coming into his own at the play’s climax .....

-WhatsonStage

He’s the Neapolitan Alan Ayckbourn; he’s the Neapolitan Chekhov, reckons Michael Pennington.

He’s Eduardo De Filippo, the author of The Syndicate, a dark comedy about the Italian underworld which plays Mike Poulton’s new version, starring Sir Ian McKellen.

It’s a piece Michael has been promoting for years - and he’s delighted it is now coming off, not least for the reason it is proving every bit as rewarding as he thought it would. “It’s a play I discovered about 20 years ago, and I have tried to get it on over the years. I had to give up, but then it raised its head again earlier this year. What happened was we did a reading of it last autumn, and Jonathan (Church, CFT artistic director) was aware of it. I just hope we do justice to it!

“Eduardo De Filippo was a very interesting man, a very different man. He wrote and produced and directed and starred in his plays. In English terms, not even Harold Pinter managed to do all four things at the same time. Nobody since Moliere has managed to do that!

“His writing is just very, very clever. It’s not just set in Naples, but in a very few Naples streets. He was someone who learnt his craft at a very early age. He is a complete master of suspense and surprise and tragicomic effect in the theatre and you get all that in The Syndicate.”

The Chichester Observer, 4th August 2011.

The Syndicate - An Interview with Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington

Cambridgeshire Agenda

16th August 2011