Luigi Pirandello (1869-1936) broke decisively with the conventions of realist theatre with his two major plays, Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) and Henry IV (1922). His relationship with Mussolini has been the subject of much debate, and his last play, The Mountain Giants (1937), reflects Pirandello's growing anxiety about artistic integrity under a fascist regime. The quintessential modernist playwright, his plays foreshadow the Theatre of the Absurd and anticipate the work of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Eugene Ionesco. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934.
Anthony Mortimer is best known for his translations of Italian poetry, including Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and Michelangelo, and, forthcoming, François Villon (Oneworld, 2013).