Maggie GÜnsberg explores gender portrayal on the Italian stage, and its shifting relationship with other social categories of class, age and the family from the Renaissance to the present day. She examines both the formal properties of drama and the conventions of drama in performance. An interdisciplinary approach and feminist perspective inform her critique of work by Machiavelli, Ariosto, Goldoni, D'Annunzio and Pirandello. She concludes by assessing the impact of Franca Rame on contemporary Italian theater.