Product Description

Robert Brustein's highly acclaimed adaptation of Pirandello's masterpiece, a study in illusion and reality which follows a group of characters who try to fashion their life stories into acceptable drama. This is a part of "Plays for Performance Series".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2151819 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-01
• Original language: Italian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 86 pages

Customer Reviews

A pioneering piece of drama
This play provoked outrage among theatre-goers at its first ever performance: not only did it defy dramatic conventions by confusing reality with fiction, but it also made the audience assess their lives anew with a harsh examination of human personalities and motivations. Fictional characters are contrasted with human beings (represented on stage by the 'actors' in the play). In art a character is stable, unable to break out of the mould fashioned by its creator; we however are continually changeable creatures who between one day and the next transform ourselves to such an extent that we have no solid 'character' at all. This is the essence of Six Characters in Search of an Author: the difficulty, even impossibility of human communication when, like Heraclitus' river, we are never the same at any two given moments. Like most of Pirandello's work, the most obvious 'plot' is tangential. The real issues are philosophical, and this wonderfully crafted piece of work is at once harrowing and stimulating.

What if?
Luigi Pirandello kicked theatre convention out the door with "Six Characters in Search of an Author." Illusion and reality get a bit bent out of shape, as fictional characters stroll about and converse with managers and actors. It's a brilliant piece of existentialist work, and one that had a distinct effect on theatre after that.

It opens with several unnamed theatre people -- the Manager, the Leading Man, the Prompter -- rehearsing a play in an empty theatre. "During this manoeuvre, the Six CHARACTERS enter, and stop by the door at back of stage," Pirandello tells us: a florid Father, timid Mother, equally timid Boy, arrogant Son, sexy Step-Daughter and too-young-to-have-much-personality Child.

"As a matter of fact . . . we have come here in search of an author . . ." the Father tells the manager. The characters have been abandoned by their author, who "no longer wished, or was no longer able" to put them into a story. And now they want the theatre company to provide them with a vehicle that will make them immortal -- and they have to convince the Manager that they are worthy.

Pirandello dispels the unreality of the play with "Oh sir, you know well that life is full of infinite absurdities, which, strangely enough, do not even need to appear plausible, since they are true." While the events of this play seems to be sort of gimmicky, Pirandello uses them with unusual grace (and not a few moments of bizarre comedy).

The characterizations are among the weirdest I've ever seen -- we have an entire family drama going on without a play/novel/film for it. Lovers, illegitimate kids, sibling rivalry and marital fights. Ironically, the Character family overshadows the "real" people on the stage. The Manager is a fun character, though, perpetually impatient and overstressed. "Pretence? Reality? To hell with it all!" the Manager cries near the end of the play.

But Pirandello's odd existentialist play "Six Characters in Search of an Author" is both pretense and reality, and it's a fun and enlightening ride while it lasts.

Both Confusing and Incredible!
The only two reviews for this product at the moment are for Luigi Pirandello's original text of Six Characters in Search of an Author, this is not the same play!
It is based on Six Characters, yet is re-written to bring them into the modern world as six half-formed stereotypes, many of whom cannot even speak because their parts have not been fully defined, yet they still feel the need to re-enact their story again and again, ultimately leading the Producer of their farce to question her own existence.
I saw this play performed by Headlong Theaters and I have to say I was thrilled. At first the play was dull, then comic as the Six Characters first arrived then suddenly surreal, shocking and dark as their tale unfolds. It was a brilliant performance and if given the chance I highly recommend you see it.
This text would be perfect for professional companies and amatuers alike as the script does not rely heavily on scenery and props.