'...Theater is based on the strength of a society which rejects the accusations of the comedy writer or at least ends up being scandalized by them. Shaw's success was founded on the hypocrisy of his audience. Nowadays, our good society isn't hypocritical, on the contrary, where it comes to itself it pushes sincerity to the most bare-bones naturalism, its professed instincts are reproduction and self-preservation. The most ferocious satire leaves it cold because on the stage it always turns out to be inferior to reality, and is consequently flattering...'
from a note in the 1956-1960 section of Occasional Notebooks, in The Via Veneto Papers by Ennio Flaiano
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