The violent backdrop of the Neapolitan underworld, populated by gangsters and a powerful godfather, might seem a little alien to Chichester’s audiences.

But although Eduardo De Filippo’s original play Il Sindaco Del Rione Sanita was written and set in 1960 as lawlessness began to creep into Naples, director Sean Mathias says Mike Poulton’s new translation The Syndicate still has resonances for today’s audience.

“It’s a play about family relationships and justice,” he says on a break from rehearsals.

“No audience would be removed from that.

“Naples today has got even worse from the time De Filippo was writing, with the rise of the powerful [Neapolitan crime syndicate] Camorra. That lawlessness was never settled.

“For an urban audience there’s definitely a link between poverty, drugs and gangs – there’s an element of violence in most inner cities now. People living in Brighton, London and Chichester will know about it, from what they read in the newspapers and see on the television.

“You see many examples of violence, drug-running and racketeering in the movies, but you don’t often see it on stage.”

The Syndicate follows the story of Don Antonio, who has made his money in real estate and acts as a kind of godfather for his fellow Neapolitans – settling disputes and finding justice for the criminal elements in the city’s society.

He is visited by a respectable but poor man who decides he’s going to murder his father – a move which sees Don Antonio approach the intended victim for the full story.

Mathias has pulled off a coup for Chichester by casting Sir Ian McKellen to play the Don, during a break from filming The Hobbit in New Zealand. The pair worked together on the recent touring version of Waiting For Godot, which saw McKellen star alongside Patrick Stewart.

Mathias first came across the play last year when he was artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

“It was one of about 100 plays I read that year, but it ended up on a shortlist of those I loved,” says Mathias. “Mike got my email, having heard how much I liked it, and suggested we do a reading.”

The reading came about in October, after which Mathias contacted Chichester Festival Theatre’s artistic director Jonathan Church about bringing it to the 2011 festival season.

“I was very keen to do it in the Minerva,” says Mathias. “There is an intimacy to the theatre which the play needs, to be very real at all times in its rawness and violence.”

Mathias had sent a copy to McKellen, and when the actor got in touch about a planned break in his schedule the director suggested they tackle The Syndicate rather than simply revive Waiting For Godot.

“Ian is such a great actor, when he creates a character it stays with him,” says Mathias.

“I had to remind him he wasn’t playing Gogo [of Waiting For Godot] in rehearsals.

His mantle hadn’t fallen away, as we had only finished Godot a year ago. It was very exciting to see this new character come through.”

Joining McKellen is a cast of 16, including Michael Pennington playing his close associate, and Cherie Lunghi as his wife. The trio all appeared at Stratford together in 1976, with Pennington playing Mercutio to McKellen’s Romeo. Once the run in Chichester is over the full cast will be taking The Syndicate to Malvern, Cambridge, Bath and Milton Keynes on a short tour.

“It’s a really good mix of young and old actors, which is great as the young actors want to learn from the older actors, and the older ones love being with the youth,” says Mathias. “It’s a great exchange which can be successful on stage.”

Another aspect of the production which attracted Mathias was the fact the play wasn’t very well known. De Fillipo’s better-known works include Napoli Milionaria, Filumena and Saturday, Sunday And Monday.

“It’s only been performed on the radio in this country with Paul Scofield playing McKellen’s part,” says Mathias. “It’s like unearthing a new play – something which the public and the critics won’t know.

“Piecing it all together was quite a challenge, as the back story is not always explicit – a lot has to be worked out yourself.”

The other big challenge was getting the right temperament among the actors to recreate the fiery exchanges of the Neapolitan underworld.

“Naples has its own language, it’s slightly separate from the rest of Italy,” he says.

“We had to get the actors not to be British – to find connections to make it hotter in the way the people are.”

One of Mathias’s solutions in rehearsal was quite unorthodox.

“I sometimes said to the actors to do the play in Italian accents,” he admits, emphasising it’s not something they were planning to do for the actual play.

“The accent can release something you wouldn’t get otherwise.

“The gestures to emphasise things come more naturally with an Italian accent – you don’t see an Englishman waving their arms about when they talk. It unlocks something – it’s a way of finding the poetry in the language.”

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