A sister dies. And yet she stays. “We lose people, but they stay with us,” Teresa Fiore says. Fiore, the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies at Montclair State University, was instrumental in bringing “Le sorelle Macaluso,” a play written and directed by Emma Dante, to Peak Performances, where it plays next week.

A funeral for one of seven sisters opens the play, which makes its American debut at MSU. The title in English is “The Sisters Macaluso.” The 70-minute performance, in Italian with English supertitles (created by a Montclair State University student, now studying in Italy), has a short script ­­­— not even 20 pages.