Raffaele Viviani

Born Jan. 10, 1888, in Castellammare di Stabia; died Mar. 22, 1950, in Naples. Italian playwright, actor, and director.

Viviani wrote more than 60 plays, for the most part in the Neapolitan dialect, the heroes of which were drawn from the common people. Viviani began with one-act and two-act plays—for example, The Alley (1918), The Capuan Gate (1918), The Cafe at Night and During the Day (1919), and Neapolitan Countryside (1919). After 1922 he turned to writing three-act comedies, constructed on sharp social and psychological conflicts—for example, The Fishermen (1924), The Gypsies (1926), The Last Street Tramp (1932), The Compulsive Swindler (1932), and The Masons (1942). Viviani’s dialect theater, closely linked with the mass, democratic spectator, was persecuted by the fascist authorities. The creative work of Viviani, one of the founders of modern Italian realistic and genuine folk drama, was highly esteemed by M. Gorky.