Love Letters was born from the reexamination of a poet wildly adored in the first half of the 20th century -- during the First World War and the Fascist Era -- and then reviled with equal passion in the second half. I had in hand many of his personal letters, which remain unedited because the many women D'Annunzio loved -- or at least those whom he courted and made love to -- kept them jealously for themselves. In my drama, D'Annunzio's love letters become the dark spirit of a thorny relationship between a mother and daughter. The reading of them...