Chapter 3 - Mussolini the Dramatist

Summary

In “Mussolini the Dramatist,” the reader will follow the dictator’s collaboration with Giovacchino Forzano – one of Italy’s most despised men of the theatre – on the writing of three historical dramas: Campo di Maggio (about Napoleon’s last hundred days), Villafranca (about Statesman Camillo Cavour and the Italian Unification), and Cesare (about that famed Roman dictator). Probing Mussolini's long-standing belief in history’s ability to educate and inspire the national community, his constant recourse to historical analogy to tell fascism’s story and his own, and the importance that he and his hierarchs placed on cultural authority in the consolidation of fascism’s power at home and abroad, the chapter tells the sometimes entertaining story of the smashing success of three mediocre plays. A final section on this success in the territories of Nazi Germany, where more than 400 performances of the plays were staged, describes the deployment of il Duce’s image and authority in fascist strategies for building soft power.