Ugo Betti

Ugo Betti was an Italian judge who became known above all as a playwright. Born in Camerino in 1892 and dying in Rome in 1953, he wrote in Italian, and many critics regard him as the most important Italian dramatist after Pirandello. His plays often use the structure of a criminal investigation to probe evil, guilt and the possibility of redemption.

He studied law at Parma and volunteered as a soldier when the First World War began. While a German prisoner between 1917 and 1918, he wrote the poems later published as Il re pensieroso in 1922. After the war he finished his degree and became a judge, writing in his spare time. The success of La Padrona, first staged in 1927, persuaded him to devote himself fully to the theatre. He moved from Parma to Rome in 1931. In 1938 the fascists accused him of being Jewish, and in his last years he worked in the library of the Ministry of Justice.

Altogether he wrote 27 plays. Their recurring concerns are existential guilt, the nature of evil and redemption, and their approach to the investigation gradually shifts from the realistic toward the metaphysical. Betti's reputation rests chiefly on his later work, and his influence on postwar Italian drama is still discussed, often in comparison with Kafka.