The Syndicate

He used his newfound status to quash his murder conviction, and was soon feared but respected throughout the city

Don Antonio has made it his life's work to bring rough justice to the criminals of Naples who otherwise have no fear of the law

He rules the city's underbelly with a rod of iron ...

The play begins when a respectable but poor young man who has resolved to murder his father 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 and the comedy grows blacker as 'respectable' Naples collides with its criminal underworld

A dark comedy of pathos and farce by one of Italy's pre-eminent dramatists of the twentieth century, Eduardo De Filippo's The Syndicate (Il sindaco del rione Sanità) is made newly accessible and contemporary by this translation by Mike Poulton