Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 110

theater review Filu me could have been played with the all-out fervor of grand opera She has prepared us for it throughout the play building Filumena into a woman of substance and single-minded resolve Finlay hectoring retreating probing deviously to discover which one of the three sons is his is also admirable Some nice touches are added by members of the American supporting cast most notably Ernest Sarracino and Miriam Phillips as two old servants I see the 1964 movie version "Marriage Italian so I know how the Italian stars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mas-troianni compare to flavorsome British ones And I know how much has been contributed to De play by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse who wrote the English version or by Olivier husband) who took over recently from the original London and pre-Broadway director Franco Zeffirelli Whoever is responsible' in its new production is an agreeable domestic comedy that serves as a fine excuse for bringing Joan Plowright back to Broadway She was last here 20 years ago as the troubled young girl in "A Taste of Now playing a mature woman to be reckoned with in a performance to be savored II way several years ago and his "Grand last season seemed like reheated Pirandello) The first of the three acts is filled with shouting and tired bits of comic business Filumena having arisen from her an hour before confronts the furious Don Domenico Soriano He is raging because she a prostitute taken from a brothel has become his wife through trickery more she reveals that she has three grown sons none of whom knows she is his mother and she wants them to have the respected name she has just acquired herself With all the bluster interrupted by the routing of latest mistress by the triumphant Filumena it seems as if the play will never quiet down and take hold But it finds' its and its true subject late in the second act It becomes a play about family feeling and the bonds that last when romantic ardor has cooled three illegitimate sons have arrived to be informed of their good fortune But a lawyer has also arrived telling Filumena that her deception makes the marriage void Instead of good news she tells her sons of her life of poverty and degredation Plowright is a marvel of controlled passion in this scene which By Allan Wallach Some moviegoers may remember the story: A woman who has been the mistress of one of the wealthiest men in Naples for 25 years finally tricks him into marrying her by pretending to be dying When the deception is revealed He rages she counterattacks and before long sons servants another mistress and the Italian law are tossed into the battle Like pasta this slight Neapolitan dish needs to be cooked just right or else in danger of being served up soggy and full of empty calories It gets the treatment it needs in the long-running London version of Eduardo De Italian play that opened last night at St James Theatre Joan superb performance provides 2 rich base of emotion Frank Finlay adds a sprinkling of comic seasoning Others in the cast now directed by Laurence Olivier inject enough zest to make you enjoy the warmth and overlook its lack of solid nourishment Even with their work starts out as if it will be still another limp comedy by a highly successful Italian playwright who traveled well acrosS the Atlantic (De "Saturday Sunday flopped on Broad Frank Finlay and Joan Plowright in Filumena An advocate for independence at Ch 21 broad base of support from disparate he said "I want the public to feel that we are providing value for This is the argument he and the board of trustees will use during their current $500000 corporate fund-raising campaign Wicklein said tell them we are all in the Island together and I hope Ch 21 will be a source for good for information I hope we will provide a service they want to be associated Wicklein bases his ideas on ample expience in journalism and broadcasting For eight years a reporter and editor for The New York Times he also was news director of Ch 13 a news producer at WABC-TV Washington bureau chief of National Educational Public Broadcast Laboratory news manager at WCBS-TV and vice president and general manager of WRVR-FM in Manhattan "Free at a film documentary on Martin Luther King Jr of which he was executive producer won the Venice Film Festival Award as best documentary of 1968 He comes to Ch 21 as it recovers from a year of upheaval on the staff and among the trustees His predecessor station manager Charles Bell and others accused several board members of interfering in station operations for their own gain During a five-month controversy a trustee investigation cleared the board members the board wrote management-staff guidelines eight trustees resigned and job was eliminated "I have come in if I think the problems had been Wicklein said been very pleased with the approach of this board and executive committee I have a commitment that no trustee will suggest programming to staff members except through a board programing committee and I am on the board ex officio That was a commitment I wanted before I came on the Wicklein a slim man of medium height with graying hair and a quiet manner is living in an apartment in Plainview while he and his wife look for a house Their three children are grown he said so they will no longer need a home as big as the five-bedroom place in Wayland Mass bought while he was at Boston University "Twice in my life given up job Wicklein said "Once when I left The Times and then when I left BU where I had tenure I guess I need a little By Peter Goodman John Wicklein has known for years what public television should be: "very strong in public service and Now he has a chance to try to put his ideas into practice on Long Island Wicklein 55 is the new president and general manager of WLIW-TV Ch 21 If the station develops as he would like it will be deeply involved in presenting the communities of Long Island to themselves by broadcasting hearings and publicmeetings by doing independent investigative reporting on the Island and by supporting local culture and local artists Ch 21 he maintains will not be a three-day-old version of Ch 13 presenting PBS programs several days after the public-TV behemoth in Manhattan "We will provide a choice in public Wicklein said "We will present programing different from Ch 13 And we now program ahead of offering shows before they appear on WNET "I want to develop the identity of independent public television for Long ideas include purchase of a second remote videotape unit to double the ability to cover Long Island events an increase in "good honest digging original shows of Long Island talent (the station is already planning a weekly cultural program to start next month) self-help programs on how to manage personal finances use government services or improve writing All these things will take money The remote unit itself costs $35000 and with four additional staff members to run it would require about $125000 a year Wicklein estimated a limit to what can be achieved with imagination alone and to do everything like the station would need a budget of $5 million he said The current budget is about $1 million second lowest of New York eight public television stations But the planning he envisages he believes will attract its own support "I want basically a Newsday Photo by William Senf John Wicklein Ch new president.