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Interpreting Betti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2021

G. H. McWilliam
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Extract

The more influential (though not necessarily the more perceptive) of English and American dieatre reviewers have consistently withheld their approval to the work of Ugo Betti, a writer who in Italy is acknowledged by all save a handful of critics on the extreme left to be the only major Italian dramatist of the post-Pirandello period. Many regard him as the equal in stature of his more widely known predecessor. Yet the two Betti plays that reached Broadway (The Gambler and Island of Goats) survived for only a matter of days, whilst the English productions of The Queen and the Rebels, The Burnt Flower-Bed, and Summertime (original title: II paese delle vacanze), staged in the West End in 1955-56, each ran for a relatively short period. To a student and admirer of Betti's drama, this record is disappointing, and also a little bewildering.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tulane Drama Review , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , December 1960 , pp. 15 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © The Tulane Drama Review 1960

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References

Notes

1 “Problem of Betti,” in New York Times (Dec. 27, 1959).

2 See S. Surchi's report of the proceedings in Il nuovo corriere (Feb. 12, 1952).

3 F. May, “The World on Trial,” in Radio Times (Feb. 12, 1954). An introductory note to the first English broadcast of a Betti play [Corruzione al palazzo di giustizia).

4 See A. Fiocco, “Parlo con Ugo Betti,” in La fiera letteraria (Jan. 16, 1949).

5 See G. Prosperi, “Scrive senza pieta perché gli piace essere impopolare,” in La settimana incom (July 21, 1951).

6 See especially Barbetti's book Il teatro di Ugo Betti (Florence, 1943), and his article “Evoluzione di Betti,” in Teatro, II, 3 (Feb. 1, 1950).

7 “Il teatro non finisce alle porte del teatro,” in Sipario, I, 3 (July, 1946).

8 “Appunti sull'attore,” in Scenario (Sept./Oct., 1943). Also published in Accademia, VII-VIII (1945), p. 46.

9 From “Appunti sull'attore,” loc. cit.

10 See the obituary notice by G. B. Emert in L'Adige (June 26, 1953), where these words of Betti are reported.

11 In “La storia in autobus,” an article by Betti in the newspaper, Roma (Oct. 31, 1950).