Eduardo commented on the plot saying that it was inspired from a real-life story, and specifically from some "Campoluongo", a furniture-maker who lived in Rione Sanità and was respected by the population as a local authority (i.e., a sort of "Mayor").
Il sindaco del Rione Sanità was acclaimed by both the audience and the critics,[2] while raising much controversy for its unusual ethical perspective.
Some critics have thus interpreted Barracano as essentially a Camorra boss[3] or a "Godfather", and have expressed perplexity over the ambiguous representation of this character as "good".
[5] For what concerns the identification of Barracano's alternative moral system with the Camorra honor code, Eduardo denied that Campoluongo/Barracano was a Camorrist; he was rather a Mammasantissima, i.e., someone who lived outside legality (a guappo) but that the people would call for to be protected from unjustice.
The 2012 Chichester Festival Theatre revival of the play as The Syndicate featured Ian McKellen as the Neapolitan godfather.