Playwright barely took risks, showing timidity (9)
I believe the answer is:
cowardice
'timidity' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'playwright barely took risks' is the wordplay.
'playwright' becomes 'coward ' (Noel Coward).
'barely' says to take the centre (the word is bare of its external letters).
'took risks' becomes 'diced' (to dice is to gamble or take risks).
The centre of 'diced' is 'ice'.
'coward'+'ice'='COWARDICE'
'showing' is the link.
(Other definitions for cowardice that I've seen before include "Quality of chicken" , "Yellowness" , "Spinelessness" , "Timidity - lack of courage" , "Spineless character" .)