"This is the first book in English to explore as a unit the Italian theater of the grottesco in the twentieth century: from Chiarelli's The Mask and the Face to Antonelli's A Man Confronts Himself and Cavacchioli's The Bird of Paradise, each play being the author's masterpiece, and dealing with theatrical as well as metatheatrical concerns.". "Michael Vena highlights here some of the significant innovations of these "grotteschi" both in terms of ideas and in the relationship between author, actor, and the public, thereby suggesting that the time is ripe for a systematic rassessment of these and other voices of that brief but significant movement, widely acclaimed then, certainly underestimated now, and perhaps all along misunderstood."--BOOK JACKET.