Brecht’s reception in Italy at the time of fascism

Although Brecht’s reception in Italy has been investigated by such a broad and in-depth study as Paola Barbon’s Il signor B. B. Wege und Umwege der italienischen Brecht-Rezeption (Bonn: Bouvier, 1987), recent publications demonstrate the persistence of an old historiographical cliché. A precise “year zero” for the beginning of the influence of Brecht’s texts and theories in Italy remains fixed in theater history: the premiere of The Threepenny Opera directed by Giorgio Strehler at Piccolo Teatro in Milan on February 10, 1956. This article, based on my monograph L’opera dello straccione di Vito Pandolfi e il mito di Brecht nell’Italia fascista (Roma: Aracne, 2018), will look at what had gone before, in particular, at the two versions of this play that were already performed during the fascist dictatorship, thereby investigating the very first phase of Brecht’s reception in Italy.