- Luigi Chiarelli
Luigi Chiarelli (
7 July 1880 –20 December 1947 ) was an Italianplaywright , theatre critic, and writer ofshort stories who is chiefly known as a founder of the "teatro grottesco", orTheatre of the Grotesque , after the subtitle of one of his plays.Life
He was born in 1880 in
Trani and attended university, but abandoned his studies to devote himself to journalism and criticism. The first of his plays to be produced in 1912 were "Er gendarme" ("The Policeman") and "Una notte d'amore" ("One night of Love"), followed in 1914 by "Extra dry" and in 1916 by "La maschera e il volto" ("The Mask and the Face: A Grotesque in Three Acts"), which he had written in 1913, and on which much of his reputation rests. It was praised byAntonio Gramsci in his magazine "Avanti! " (11 April 1917) for the insight it showed into the chasm between one's persona and one's true personality. It was revived in London in 1993.It was followed by "La Scala di seta" ("The Silken Ladder", 1917), "Chimere" ("Chimeras", 1920), "La morte degli amanti" ("The Lovers' Death", 1921), which was produced simultaneously in London, "Fuochi d'artificio" ("Fireworks", 1922), the
radio play "L'anello di Teodosio" ("The Ring of Teodosio", 1929) and "Un uomo da rifare" ("A Man to Remake", 1932), among many others. His plays were produced throughout Europe and in America.He was a theatre critic for the newspaper "Il corriere di Milano" from 1923, and the rise of
Fascism in Italy prompted a shift in his expressed opinions from a delight in innovation to a defensive emphasis on the authentically Italian qualities ofNovecento drama. A collection of stories, "Karakè e altri racconti", was published in 1944.He died in
Rome in 1947.External links
* [http://www.4-wall.com/authors/authors_c/chiarelli_luigi.htm List of his plays]
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