In 1934, the newly founded Royal Italian Academy, the most important cultural and scientific institution of Italian fascism, organized its fourth international Volta conference on the prose theater, which, true to the purpose of the institution, was meant to represent the new era of Italian culture both at home and abroad. The importance of the conference is indicated by the fact that Mussolini, the Chief, and later His Excellency, the Prime Minister personally and through his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano, who heads his press office, monitored the organization and then the event.

As a result of many years of research, Ilona Fried, an Italianist, theater and cultural historian, recalls the emblematic event and offers an insight into the behind-the-scenes of culture and politics, into the relationship between power and outstanding intellectuals such as Pirandello, Marinetti, DAnnunzio. The presence and absence of the foreign guests, Walter Gropius, Gordon Craig, Stanyslavskyi, Mejerhold, Stefan Zweig, Ferenc Molnár, Ferenc Herczeg, Antal Németh and others, already shows that Italy and Europe are headed for tragedy