ABSTRACT
Traditionally, the greatest strength of the Italian theatre has never come from its playwrights. From the Renaissance onwards, there have been a few writers who have contributed plays to the Italian repertoire, writers such as Machiavelli, Bibbiena, Isabella Andreini, Goldoni, Alfieri, Pirandello, D'Annunzio, Ugo Betti and Dario Fo, but there is nothing comparable to the body of dramatic writing existing in most other European languages.
