Overview

A highly suspenseful and intellectually stimulating play by the man usually acknowledged as the best Italian dramatist since Pirandello. Following the suicide of a corrupter, and rumors of bribery at court, an investigator is appointed to determine who among the judges is venal, who is the moral leper. What ensues is a harrowing play with many levels of action and meaning. The chief judge is the first to feel the massive weight of guilt; and then his colleague, who by disclosures to the first judge's daughter drives her to suicide. And then finally to a third diabolical judge, who dies laughing, with tantalizing secrets.