Teatro del grottesco

Teatro del grottesco ("Theater of the Grotesque") describes a group of Italian dramatists who existed between 1916 and 1925. Luigi Chiarelli (1880–1947), whose play “Mask and Face” ( La maschera e il volto ) premiered in 1916, was the founder of the trend .

In this play, which is exemplary of the direction, a husband feels obliged to murder his unfaithful wife. Since he cannot bring it to the heart, he only fakes the murder. He is acquitted and not only that: his friends cheer him, their wives make him advances, baskets full of letters of congratulations arrive, his house is a sea of ​​flowers and finally a pageant is approaching, headed by judges and juries. At this peak of grotesque exaggeration, the carelessness of the wife is fraudulent and the husbands have to flee, since the pretense of a crime out of passion is persecuted relentlessly.

Other members of the group were:

• Luigi Antonelli (1877–1942; "The man who met himself", "The dream shop")
• Enrico Cavacchioli (1885–1954)
• Fausto Maria Martini (1886–1931)
• Dario Niccodemi (1874–1934)
• Pier Maria Rosso di San Secondo (1887–1956; "Marionettes, what passions!")

The most important representative of the direction was Luigi Pirandello ("Heinrich IV", "Six people are looking for an author").

literature

• Wolfgang Kayser : The grotesque in painting and poetry. Stalling, Oldenburg 1961, pp. 145-149