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Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays
Pirandello (1867-1936) is the founding architect of twentieth-century drama, brilliantly innovatory in his forms and themes, and in the combined energy, imagination and visual colours of his theatre.This volume of plays, translated from the Italian by Mark Musa, opens with Six Characters in Search of an Author, Pirandello's most popular and controversial work in which six characters invade the stage and demand to be included in the play. The tragedy Henry IV dramatizes the lucid madness of a man who may be King. In So It Is (If You Think So) the townspeople exercise a morbid curiosity attempting to discover 'the truth' about the Ponza family. Each of these plays can lay claim to being Pirandello's masterpiece, and in exploring the nature of human personality each one stretches the resources of drama to their limits.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1921
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About the author
Luigi Pirandello
1,446 books1,414 followersLuigi Pirandello; Agrigento (28 June 1867 – Rome 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays.
He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"
Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"
Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
March 2, 2018
In this collection of three of Pirandello's plays, including his most famous work Six Characters in Search of an Author, a common question threads itself through each: what is real and what is fiction?
In Six Characters in Search of an Author, a family of 'characters' invade the rehearsal of a play and demand to find an author. 'One is born to life in many forms,' the father says 'as a tree, or a stone, as water, a butterfly... or as human. And one can also be born as a character.' These characters are stuck without a text.
The whole play is a musing on what is real and what isn't, and to some extent the role of the author, AND begs the philosophical question of what happens to characters outside of their author's text? There's a lot going on. I feel I need a good lecture series on the whole thing. But it is enjoyable if you're into the whole Theatre of the Absurd stuff.
My favourite play in the collection was the second play, Henry IV. It involves a man who receives a head injury and believes himself to be Henry IV (the German one, not the French one or the English one). So, all his family and friends dress up as characters from the era of Henry IV, decorate his house to look like a palace, and all play along with his fantasy. Doctor after doctor visits him but nobody can cure him.
I found Henry IV to be a more competent musing on 'characters'. Each character in this play is playing another character for the amusement of the supposed King Henry. They're all acting a play within a play. It is also a meditation on madness and begs the question, who is really mad? Henry IV or the people who play along with his fantasy? This was a really stellar play.
The final play is an odd drama. So It Is (If You Think So) involves two characters who try to claim that the other is insane, due to the particulars of a marriage. Then all the other characters spend the rest of the play trying to figure out which one is actually sane and telling the truth and which is lying and insane. It's something of a farce-cum-detective play about, once again, madness and people believing their own lies. (I've a feeling Pirandello has a thing about madness and the nature of fiction eh?)
So It Is (If You Think So) is the weakest of the bunch but is still a fine play.
Overall this collection is a nice little compendium of probably Pirandello's best-known works. I feel I could probably hold my own in a conversation about Pirandello now (which will probably never happen but *just in case*).
In Six Characters in Search of an Author, a family of 'characters' invade the rehearsal of a play and demand to find an author. 'One is born to life in many forms,' the father says 'as a tree, or a stone, as water, a butterfly... or as human. And one can also be born as a character.' These characters are stuck without a text.
The whole play is a musing on what is real and what isn't, and to some extent the role of the author, AND begs the philosophical question of what happens to characters outside of their author's text? There's a lot going on. I feel I need a good lecture series on the whole thing. But it is enjoyable if you're into the whole Theatre of the Absurd stuff.
My favourite play in the collection was the second play, Henry IV. It involves a man who receives a head injury and believes himself to be Henry IV (the German one, not the French one or the English one). So, all his family and friends dress up as characters from the era of Henry IV, decorate his house to look like a palace, and all play along with his fantasy. Doctor after doctor visits him but nobody can cure him.
I found Henry IV to be a more competent musing on 'characters'. Each character in this play is playing another character for the amusement of the supposed King Henry. They're all acting a play within a play. It is also a meditation on madness and begs the question, who is really mad? Henry IV or the people who play along with his fantasy? This was a really stellar play.
The final play is an odd drama. So It Is (If You Think So) involves two characters who try to claim that the other is insane, due to the particulars of a marriage. Then all the other characters spend the rest of the play trying to figure out which one is actually sane and telling the truth and which is lying and insane. It's something of a farce-cum-detective play about, once again, madness and people believing their own lies. (I've a feeling Pirandello has a thing about madness and the nature of fiction eh?)
So It Is (If You Think So) is the weakest of the bunch but is still a fine play.
Overall this collection is a nice little compendium of probably Pirandello's best-known works. I feel I could probably hold my own in a conversation about Pirandello now (which will probably never happen but *just in case*).
December 7, 2020
A great work, perhaps the best play of the 20thC. And a standard for great art: Think you've written really well? Did the audience fight for 20 minutes at the end, divided between hostility and admiration? That's what happened 10 Maggio '21, Teatro Valle di Roma. (Interesting that around then Italy won a gold medal in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, but the Belgian band did not know the new Italian national anthem: they played O Sole Mio--and all the stands sang along. Unfortunately, the writer Capurro [?] had died a couple years earlier.)
The first reviewer said the issues of art vs life, and the nature of play-writing and performance are universal. It is also, of course, metadramatic, with the Son asseverating, "I am an undeveloped character."
The Capocomico (not really a "producer," but head of the troupe) treats the real lives of the people they stage as if they're invented--which brutalizes the "real" people.
As Molière tells about the task of writing comedy late in his Critique de L'Ecole des Femmes, Pirandello expresses his method late in Sei Personaggi in cerca d'autore.* The Father reflects on literature's superiority to life; a character has a life, he is always "someone," but a man, un uomo:
"un personaggio ha veramente una vita sua, segnata di caretteri suoi, per cui è sempre 'qualcuno'. Mentre un uomo-- non dico lei, adesso-- un uomo cosi in genere, può non essere 'nessuno'"(71)
Moreover, all one's lived reality today may appear an illusion tomorrow.
The Father adds that the written character is an eternal reality, immutable, so terrible or thrilling for the Capocomico to approach. The Capocomico responds, But where have you ever seen a character step out of his part and explain the part, as you just have? "Quando mai s'è visto un personaggio che, uscendo dlla su parte, si sia messo a perorarla così come fa lei, e a proporla, a spegarla. Io non l'ho mai visto!"
Illusion, the question that ends it. Is the boy's death acted?
Now, may I add, Giordano Bruno's one comedy, Candelaio, is also metadramatic--in 1582! In the last scene the Latin teacher, just beaten as he did his students, is asked to look at the audience, "Doesn't it seem you're on stage?" Yes, it does. "At what point in the drama would you like to be?" The End! "Then hold up the Plaudite sign."
*My Italian copy, Biblioteca Economica Newton, Newton Compton: Roma, 1997. And economica it was, only $1.80,
3000 lira.
The first reviewer said the issues of art vs life, and the nature of play-writing and performance are universal. It is also, of course, metadramatic, with the Son asseverating, "I am an undeveloped character."
The Capocomico (not really a "producer," but head of the troupe) treats the real lives of the people they stage as if they're invented--which brutalizes the "real" people.
As Molière tells about the task of writing comedy late in his Critique de L'Ecole des Femmes, Pirandello expresses his method late in Sei Personaggi in cerca d'autore.* The Father reflects on literature's superiority to life; a character has a life, he is always "someone," but a man, un uomo:
"un personaggio ha veramente una vita sua, segnata di caretteri suoi, per cui è sempre 'qualcuno'. Mentre un uomo-- non dico lei, adesso-- un uomo cosi in genere, può non essere 'nessuno'"(71)
Moreover, all one's lived reality today may appear an illusion tomorrow.
The Father adds that the written character is an eternal reality, immutable, so terrible or thrilling for the Capocomico to approach. The Capocomico responds, But where have you ever seen a character step out of his part and explain the part, as you just have? "Quando mai s'è visto un personaggio che, uscendo dlla su parte, si sia messo a perorarla così come fa lei, e a proporla, a spegarla. Io non l'ho mai visto!"
Illusion, the question that ends it. Is the boy's death acted?
Now, may I add, Giordano Bruno's one comedy, Candelaio, is also metadramatic--in 1582! In the last scene the Latin teacher, just beaten as he did his students, is asked to look at the audience, "Doesn't it seem you're on stage?" Yes, it does. "At what point in the drama would you like to be?" The End! "Then hold up the Plaudite sign."
*My Italian copy, Biblioteca Economica Newton, Newton Compton: Roma, 1997. And economica it was, only $1.80,
3000 lira.
December 26, 2024
"But can't you see that all the trouble lies here! In the words! All of us have a world full of things inside of us, each of us his own world of things! And how can we understand one another, sir, if in the words I speak I put the meaning and the value of things as I myself see them, while the one who listens inevitably takes them according to the meaning and the value which he has in himself of the world he has inside of himself. We think we understand each other; we never understand one another. " (19)This collection of Luigi Pirandello's plays includes the titular Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV, and So It Is (If You Think So)—all of which deal with the nature of knowledge and the reality (of different forms) of existence and are, to sum it up, quite horrifyingly brilliant.
November 19, 2009
The theater of Luigi Pirandello relentlessly begs the question, within a theatrical context, of what is realistic and what is fictional drama. An appropriate, recent example of Pirandello's influence at work is Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, NY, a film in which the main character Caden's attempt to make a theatre about "everything" results in a sort of solipsistic confusion about what he is actually experiencing and what is merely an acted out rendition of his past (or present for that matter). Kaufman, who does have a slight background in the theatre himself, took this theme and reinvigorated what was an already innovative idea.
This of course makes for a very theoretical type of theater. And Pirandello, once he has laid out his main concept, spends much of the time within his plays musing on exactly what makes staged performance, theater. Take Six Characters in Search of an Author for example. A theater group is putting on Pirandello's own play, Ille Gioco del Parti (the Game of Roles). The play is interrupted by a quarreling family of six. The father of the family explains that they are in search of someone to finish their story. After explaining their background and current conflict, he pleads with the director of the play to complete this real-life drama. Pirandello tactfully juxtaposes the actors doing the Pirandello play, and the characters who almost seem to invade the theater with their dramatic reality. So the question that keeps coming up here is, well, to put it frankly; what is reality? Pirandello was part of a theater movement called anti-illusionism, or theatricalism. This movement rejected realism in favor of dreamlike symbolism. It shows too. Despite the fact that the father's character defends his family's actual situation and how steeped in reality it is, Pirandello is still trying to make the point that this is yet another layer of some sort of theatrical drama. The odd thing about this play is that the actual situation and history of the family seems irrelevant after a point. It is rather the questions about theater that Pirandello poses that makes Six Characters in Search of an Author such an engaging play.
The other two plays in this Penguin edition, Henry IV and So It Is (If You Think So) are concerned with the same basic questions. Although in these plays there is a more solid emphasis on how madness can play an important role in determining what is real and what is imagined or fictionalized. Henry IV is all about a man who is diagnosed by his family as insane, in light of which an historically based fiction is created to appease his delusions. The question here is, is he actually mad, or is he the one placating his family's madness? So It Is (If You Think So) assesses the reliability of personal testimony as truth. One family, the Agazzi's, are obsessed with the mysterious lives of another family, the Ponza's. Regardless of the source of truth about the Ponza's living situation, the Agazzi's would never be content. Once again, this is Pirandello questioning the reliability of language as well as personal testimony.
Pirandello's epistemology is so utterly pessimistic and distrustful that his plays can be a bit long-winded. Despite the playful brilliance of this content, his trademark, endless meta-questioning tends to overwhelm most of the dramatic elements. It's almost unfortunate in a way because it seems as if some of his plays could actually be written as theoretical essays on theater rather than actual plays. Still, Six Characters in Search of an Author is a delightful piece of modernist theater, and was an incredibly innovative play for its time.
This of course makes for a very theoretical type of theater. And Pirandello, once he has laid out his main concept, spends much of the time within his plays musing on exactly what makes staged performance, theater. Take Six Characters in Search of an Author for example. A theater group is putting on Pirandello's own play, Ille Gioco del Parti (the Game of Roles). The play is interrupted by a quarreling family of six. The father of the family explains that they are in search of someone to finish their story. After explaining their background and current conflict, he pleads with the director of the play to complete this real-life drama. Pirandello tactfully juxtaposes the actors doing the Pirandello play, and the characters who almost seem to invade the theater with their dramatic reality. So the question that keeps coming up here is, well, to put it frankly; what is reality? Pirandello was part of a theater movement called anti-illusionism, or theatricalism. This movement rejected realism in favor of dreamlike symbolism. It shows too. Despite the fact that the father's character defends his family's actual situation and how steeped in reality it is, Pirandello is still trying to make the point that this is yet another layer of some sort of theatrical drama. The odd thing about this play is that the actual situation and history of the family seems irrelevant after a point. It is rather the questions about theater that Pirandello poses that makes Six Characters in Search of an Author such an engaging play.
The other two plays in this Penguin edition, Henry IV and So It Is (If You Think So) are concerned with the same basic questions. Although in these plays there is a more solid emphasis on how madness can play an important role in determining what is real and what is imagined or fictionalized. Henry IV is all about a man who is diagnosed by his family as insane, in light of which an historically based fiction is created to appease his delusions. The question here is, is he actually mad, or is he the one placating his family's madness? So It Is (If You Think So) assesses the reliability of personal testimony as truth. One family, the Agazzi's, are obsessed with the mysterious lives of another family, the Ponza's. Regardless of the source of truth about the Ponza's living situation, the Agazzi's would never be content. Once again, this is Pirandello questioning the reliability of language as well as personal testimony.
Pirandello's epistemology is so utterly pessimistic and distrustful that his plays can be a bit long-winded. Despite the playful brilliance of this content, his trademark, endless meta-questioning tends to overwhelm most of the dramatic elements. It's almost unfortunate in a way because it seems as if some of his plays could actually be written as theoretical essays on theater rather than actual plays. Still, Six Characters in Search of an Author is a delightful piece of modernist theater, and was an incredibly innovative play for its time.
April 14, 2011
They say I was born in June. The day, the year somehow ceases to exist. I live with my mother. She stares at the wall, singing songs unnoticing my existence in the house. Is this how being an orphan feels like? I used to work at Madame Pace’s dress shop. Only it wasn’t a dress shop. It was a whore house where I used to entertain clients throughout the night. My mother was unaware of my earnings, but as if it mattered. Then, one day I fell in love. In fact, I fell in love with his eyes. The same brown affectionate eyes that I own. They were so memorable, they were mine. I could see myself in them. My eyes on this strange face, mesmerizing yet daunting. He was my client, elderly yet so affectionate. Months went by, but he never visited me again. I looked for him but no avail. They say, he shot himself out of guilt. He was my biological father. The shame of seducing his own blood ate him up after finding my truth. So, as I lay in a pool of blood, the cold metal burning against my sinful hands, I pierce the sharp edge into the warm blob of flesh. I killed my baby. I killed my brother. I practically cease to exist now. Shame and numbness has weighed my soul into nothingness. The man once my mother had left my father for took her away. So, here I come to you with an unfilled life and an unfinished story pleading you to bring an authored conclusion.
“You imbecile”, yelled the stage-manager. “You expect me to believe this garbage and let my actors perform your absurdity".
“Yes”, I affirm, “The settings should be realistic and the truth should be told in its unaltered form.”
“I am an unrealized character sir”, I humbly say, “I need you to finish my story and bring it to life”.
The stage manager now enraged walks away hurling obscenities and muttering, “Acting is our business here. Truth up to a certain point, but no further”; as he looks at me with a sardonic smile.
Pirandello illuminates the ‘Theatre of Absurd’ genre in this bizarre performance. A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by employing disjointed, repetitious and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing situations and plots that lack realistic or logical development. Purely in its theatrical form he depicts a tale of six characters in search of an author who is able not only to complete their fragmentary story but to perform their ingenuous legitimacy. A story which is not a story after all. Through the numerous arguments between the six characters and the stage manager about portrayal of reality in its unaltered state to the audiences marks the debate of life reality v/s stage reality. The sense of illusion what is illustrated to be a reality on performance stage is far from the factual forms.
The plethora of reality television that demarcates an entire generation outlook mutates the genuineness of its characters. How real are the nuances of these actors who state publicly that their respected shows are not scripted but spontaneous? The movies that state ‘based on a true story’, how far do they enact the truth or is pragmatism edited to normalization of absurdity. Pirandello stresses on the theatre being an illusion of reality where actors masquerade real emotions through rehearsals and mutability.
A brilliant existentialism perception of individuals being characters all through their life portraying roles that their born into and the normality of emotions attached to their specific roles. Who are we? The roles that we are born into or the tangible roles we want to play.
“You imbecile”, yelled the stage-manager. “You expect me to believe this garbage and let my actors perform your absurdity".
“Yes”, I affirm, “The settings should be realistic and the truth should be told in its unaltered form.”
“I am an unrealized character sir”, I humbly say, “I need you to finish my story and bring it to life”.
The stage manager now enraged walks away hurling obscenities and muttering, “Acting is our business here. Truth up to a certain point, but no further”; as he looks at me with a sardonic smile.
Pirandello illuminates the ‘Theatre of Absurd’ genre in this bizarre performance. A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by employing disjointed, repetitious and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing situations and plots that lack realistic or logical development. Purely in its theatrical form he depicts a tale of six characters in search of an author who is able not only to complete their fragmentary story but to perform their ingenuous legitimacy. A story which is not a story after all. Through the numerous arguments between the six characters and the stage manager about portrayal of reality in its unaltered state to the audiences marks the debate of life reality v/s stage reality. The sense of illusion what is illustrated to be a reality on performance stage is far from the factual forms.
The plethora of reality television that demarcates an entire generation outlook mutates the genuineness of its characters. How real are the nuances of these actors who state publicly that their respected shows are not scripted but spontaneous? The movies that state ‘based on a true story’, how far do they enact the truth or is pragmatism edited to normalization of absurdity. Pirandello stresses on the theatre being an illusion of reality where actors masquerade real emotions through rehearsals and mutability.
A brilliant existentialism perception of individuals being characters all through their life portraying roles that their born into and the normality of emotions attached to their specific roles. Who are we? The roles that we are born into or the tangible roles we want to play.
July 10, 2023
A metatextual delight.
I took a chance on Pirandello and I think he might have coaxed me into a newfound passion for Italian absurdist literature. Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays features two scripts that stunned me and one that fell a little short of that.
The titular play Six Characters in Search of an Author is exactly as the title suggests. A fictional family crashes a stage rehearsal and compels the director into telling their tragedy. It is a play of two acts, the first focusing on persuasion and the second controversy. Though I felt the ending was missing a little clarity, it remains a striking conclusion to an argument about life, stories and life stories.
I appreciated what Henry IV was trying to do but it took a while to properly start. The friends of an Italian aristocrat who believes himself to be German King Henry IV, bring a doctor to help draw him out of his delusion. This is the kind of tale that calls for more historical knowledge than I had going into it. That being said, no matter which royal figure was presented, the treatment of madness and the bizarre compromises it heralds was well-handled. It pleased me to spy Chekov's Gun in the form of a sword.
At first I wasn't sure what to think of So It Is (If You Think So) but the rumour mill momentum soon swept me up. A newcomer and mother-in-law cause a stir in a neighbourhood when each offer a credible argument about each other's purported insanity and the peculiar caregiving response. No-one sees the newcomer's wife for confirmation one way or another till the very end but is anything in fact revealed? This was my firm favourite of the three plays, purely because of how much I wanted to know the answer by the end. A masterclass in tantalising an audience.
If this is the kind of writing Pirandello is capable of, I will definitely seek out more of his work. His brand of metafiction is bitter but still flavoursome, thanks in no small part to translator Mark Musa who does a perfect job of capturing the playwright's words in a suitably lucid way. I just wish that there were more theatre companies staging daring classics like Six Characters in Search of an Author and So It Is (If You Think So).
I recommend Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays to theatre lovers and anyone in search of provocative thought experiments.
I took a chance on Pirandello and I think he might have coaxed me into a newfound passion for Italian absurdist literature. Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays features two scripts that stunned me and one that fell a little short of that.
The titular play Six Characters in Search of an Author is exactly as the title suggests. A fictional family crashes a stage rehearsal and compels the director into telling their tragedy. It is a play of two acts, the first focusing on persuasion and the second controversy. Though I felt the ending was missing a little clarity, it remains a striking conclusion to an argument about life, stories and life stories.
I appreciated what Henry IV was trying to do but it took a while to properly start. The friends of an Italian aristocrat who believes himself to be German King Henry IV, bring a doctor to help draw him out of his delusion. This is the kind of tale that calls for more historical knowledge than I had going into it. That being said, no matter which royal figure was presented, the treatment of madness and the bizarre compromises it heralds was well-handled. It pleased me to spy Chekov's Gun in the form of a sword.
At first I wasn't sure what to think of So It Is (If You Think So) but the rumour mill momentum soon swept me up. A newcomer and mother-in-law cause a stir in a neighbourhood when each offer a credible argument about each other's purported insanity and the peculiar caregiving response. No-one sees the newcomer's wife for confirmation one way or another till the very end but is anything in fact revealed? This was my firm favourite of the three plays, purely because of how much I wanted to know the answer by the end. A masterclass in tantalising an audience.
If this is the kind of writing Pirandello is capable of, I will definitely seek out more of his work. His brand of metafiction is bitter but still flavoursome, thanks in no small part to translator Mark Musa who does a perfect job of capturing the playwright's words in a suitably lucid way. I just wish that there were more theatre companies staging daring classics like Six Characters in Search of an Author and So It Is (If You Think So).
I recommend Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays to theatre lovers and anyone in search of provocative thought experiments.
February 16, 2022
Pirandello, always ahead of his time.
January 16, 2022
Sáu nhân vật đi tìm tác giả ra đời vào năm 1921, là “cú bomb” thật sự không chỉ cho riêng Pirandello giúp tên tuổi ông biết đến rộng rãi trên toàn thế giới; mà còn là những đổi mới truyền thống kịch nghệ. Với sự độc đáo và gây sửng sốt về muôn mặt vấn đề, có thể nói đây là đỉnh cao của kịch nghệ thế kỉ 20, và là dấu mốc chói lọi của nhà văn được trao Nobel Văn chương 1932.
Luigi Pirandello trong các tác phẩm của mình, hầu như luôn đi tìm một nhân dạng đã mất. Văn chương của ông là sự bóc trần sự thật. Ngòi bút là nhát gươm xé toạc bóng dáng ẩn chứa trong gương, để ông, trong hành trình có phần cô độc, xóa nhòa dấu gạch nối trong cái tôi thứ hai, và nhiều cái tôi xếp hàng dài nữa, trong thời nhân quần đảo điên. Nếu các tác phẩm như Đi tìm nhân dạng hay Mattia Pascal quá cố có một nhân vật thực trên hành trình đi tìm tiếng nói bản thân, thì Sáu nhân vật đi tìm tác giả lại hiển hiện hơn sự đối đầu thực tại và mộng ảo, khi đó là vở kịch nay được diễn lại nhưng luôn nhập nhằng giữa sự thật và mang hàm ý sự thật.
Ngay từ thời khắc được trình diễn, vở kịch đã khiến khản giả sởn gai ốc bởi sự mới lạ của nó. Bởi nhẽ, khi người ta chờ một hiện thực được kể lại từ ảo mộng, thì những nhân vật của Pirandello không làm gì khác là khuấy tung nó lên, như một đĩa salad với mọi hỷ nộ ái ố. Họ là diễn viên, hay nhân vật chính? Câu chuyện của họ là thực, hay chỉ mộng ảo? Ngay cả Pirandello, bên cạnh motif đi tìm nhân dạng thân quen, ông cũng xoáy sâu vào vai trò của kịch, của sự diễn và cái giả dối tất yếu.
Thách thức, kiên ngạnh, trật tự trong sự mất trật tự; Sáu nhân vật đi tìm tác giả dễ bị nhận xét là hỗ lốn theo bất kì phương diện nào mà ta nhìn vào, thế nhưng khi đi sâu và hiểu rõ những thách thức Pirandello đặt ra, ta sẽ bất ngờ khi hiểu được đằng sau những mê cung muôn phương vạn hướng, bộ áo choàng lông cừu vàng của sự thật là rất đáng để thử. Vừa tôn vinh hiện thực và cũng là mộng ảo, vừa đánh đổ kịch nghệ nhưng cũng đưa nó lên một tầm cao mới; có thể nói đây là tác phẩm tiên phong nhất, nổi bật nhất và cũng đặc sắc nhất của Pirandello.
Luigi Pirandello trong các tác phẩm của mình, hầu như luôn đi tìm một nhân dạng đã mất. Văn chương của ông là sự bóc trần sự thật. Ngòi bút là nhát gươm xé toạc bóng dáng ẩn chứa trong gương, để ông, trong hành trình có phần cô độc, xóa nhòa dấu gạch nối trong cái tôi thứ hai, và nhiều cái tôi xếp hàng dài nữa, trong thời nhân quần đảo điên. Nếu các tác phẩm như Đi tìm nhân dạng hay Mattia Pascal quá cố có một nhân vật thực trên hành trình đi tìm tiếng nói bản thân, thì Sáu nhân vật đi tìm tác giả lại hiển hiện hơn sự đối đầu thực tại và mộng ảo, khi đó là vở kịch nay được diễn lại nhưng luôn nhập nhằng giữa sự thật và mang hàm ý sự thật.
Ngay từ thời khắc được trình diễn, vở kịch đã khiến khản giả sởn gai ốc bởi sự mới lạ của nó. Bởi nhẽ, khi người ta chờ một hiện thực được kể lại từ ảo mộng, thì những nhân vật của Pirandello không làm gì khác là khuấy tung nó lên, như một đĩa salad với mọi hỷ nộ ái ố. Họ là diễn viên, hay nhân vật chính? Câu chuyện của họ là thực, hay chỉ mộng ảo? Ngay cả Pirandello, bên cạnh motif đi tìm nhân dạng thân quen, ông cũng xoáy sâu vào vai trò của kịch, của sự diễn và cái giả dối tất yếu.
Thách thức, kiên ngạnh, trật tự trong sự mất trật tự; Sáu nhân vật đi tìm tác giả dễ bị nhận xét là hỗ lốn theo bất kì phương diện nào mà ta nhìn vào, thế nhưng khi đi sâu và hiểu rõ những thách thức Pirandello đặt ra, ta sẽ bất ngờ khi hiểu được đằng sau những mê cung muôn phương vạn hướng, bộ áo choàng lông cừu vàng của sự thật là rất đáng để thử. Vừa tôn vinh hiện thực và cũng là mộng ảo, vừa đánh đổ kịch nghệ nhưng cũng đưa nó lên một tầm cao mới; có thể nói đây là tác phẩm tiên phong nhất, nổi bật nhất và cũng đặc sắc nhất của Pirandello.
March 1, 2020
The original metafiction. We start off with some actors and actresses, who are putting on a different Pirandello play, Mixing It Up, of which the stage manager says, “Is it my fault if France won’t send us any more good comedies, and we are reduced to putting on Pirandello’s works, where nobody understands anything and where the author plays the fool with us all?”
The titular six characters consist of a disjointed family: the Mother (aka Amalia), the Father, the Step-Daughter, the Son, the Boy, and the Child (aka Rosetta). They come into the theatre, interrupt the rehearsing players, announce that they were born characters rather than people, and demand an author for their story. The stage manager thinks they are insane, but they counter him: “Are you not accustomed to see the characters created by an author spring to life in yourselves and face each other? Just because there is no ‘book’ which contains us, you refuse to believe . . .”
The manager lets them tell their story, which is this: the Father and Mother had the Son together, but when he was two years old, Mother fell in love with Father’s secretary. Father sent the secretary away, but saw that Mother moped over him. According to Father, he sent Mother to be with the secretary because he didn’t want her to be unhappy, but according to Mother, he did it to free himself of her.
Anyway, Mother has three children with the secretary: Stepdaughter, Boy, and Child. At some point, they move away.
Two months prior to the play, the secretary died, leaving Mother a sort of widow, even though her legal husband (Father) is still alive. Mother takes her children back to her hometown (where Father still lives with the Son, but Father doesn’t know they’re back in town).
Stepdaughter, unbeknownst to Mother, begins working as a high-class call girl. One night, Father shows up as one of her clients. They’re about to exchange money for sex (and it’s not clear whether either Father or Stepdaughter recognized the other) when Mother walks in on them.
The manager is intrigued and agrees to hear their story in detail and become their “author” (to the derision of his actors). He has the characters start acting out their scenes, and assigns actors to play them; the characters are appalled by the fact that the actors run the scenes with their own inflections, gestures, and personalities, and fail to recognize themselves in the rendition.
They also object to the Manager making changes to scenes (making them more romantic, more sentimental, more audience-worth), because those changes are not their reality, as characters:
Our reality doesn’t change: it can’t change! It can’t be other than what it is, because it is already fixed forever.
The Son objects to all of this: he doesn’t want the play at all, unlike the rest of the family. He has no interest in showing the world his family’s shame, “And I stand for the will of our author in this. He didn’t want to put us on the stage, after all!”
The six characters show the Manager the rest of the story—the Child drowns in a fountain in the garden or perhaps was drowned by the Boy (the Son came up and saw the Boy watching the drowned Child in the fountain). Stepdaughter rushes over and weeps over the Child. The Boy shoots himself nearby. Stepdaughter runs away.
It’s a very curious book, and Pirandello is very funny, in an obscure wink-wink nudge-nudge way.
The titular six characters consist of a disjointed family: the Mother (aka Amalia), the Father, the Step-Daughter, the Son, the Boy, and the Child (aka Rosetta). They come into the theatre, interrupt the rehearsing players, announce that they were born characters rather than people, and demand an author for their story. The stage manager thinks they are insane, but they counter him: “Are you not accustomed to see the characters created by an author spring to life in yourselves and face each other? Just because there is no ‘book’ which contains us, you refuse to believe . . .”
The manager lets them tell their story, which is this: the Father and Mother had the Son together, but when he was two years old, Mother fell in love with Father’s secretary. Father sent the secretary away, but saw that Mother moped over him. According to Father, he sent Mother to be with the secretary because he didn’t want her to be unhappy, but according to Mother, he did it to free himself of her.
Anyway, Mother has three children with the secretary: Stepdaughter, Boy, and Child. At some point, they move away.
Two months prior to the play, the secretary died, leaving Mother a sort of widow, even though her legal husband (Father) is still alive. Mother takes her children back to her hometown (where Father still lives with the Son, but Father doesn’t know they’re back in town).
Stepdaughter, unbeknownst to Mother, begins working as a high-class call girl. One night, Father shows up as one of her clients. They’re about to exchange money for sex (and it’s not clear whether either Father or Stepdaughter recognized the other) when Mother walks in on them.
The manager is intrigued and agrees to hear their story in detail and become their “author” (to the derision of his actors). He has the characters start acting out their scenes, and assigns actors to play them; the characters are appalled by the fact that the actors run the scenes with their own inflections, gestures, and personalities, and fail to recognize themselves in the rendition.
They also object to the Manager making changes to scenes (making them more romantic, more sentimental, more audience-worth), because those changes are not their reality, as characters:
Our reality doesn’t change: it can’t change! It can’t be other than what it is, because it is already fixed forever.
The Son objects to all of this: he doesn’t want the play at all, unlike the rest of the family. He has no interest in showing the world his family’s shame, “And I stand for the will of our author in this. He didn’t want to put us on the stage, after all!”
The six characters show the Manager the rest of the story—the Child drowns in a fountain in the garden or perhaps was drowned by the Boy (the Son came up and saw the Boy watching the drowned Child in the fountain). Stepdaughter rushes over and weeps over the Child. The Boy shoots himself nearby. Stepdaughter runs away.
It’s a very curious book, and Pirandello is very funny, in an obscure wink-wink nudge-nudge way.
July 24, 2009
A farce! Six Characters in Search of an Author is a remarkable invention of genius by the Italian Nobel laureate, Luigi Pirandello, which mixes the real with the verisimilar, where a drama is acted out within a drama. In this work he explores the ambiguous nature of reality and truth.
This drama is in two acts, which can be read in around ninety minutes. A director and a company of actors are in preparation for their rehearsal. Then six people or characters - a father and his family - who have already made their way into the hall, interrupt them. They say they are in search of an author and intrude on to the stage. Incredulous and reluctant as the director is, not to mention the actors, the six characters are allowed to state their case piece by piece. The director thinks they are a crazy bunch of fools, but never has a chance to have them thrown out. Eventually he is persuaded by this family of characters and taken to their story. Subsequently he readies his actors to attempt it. But the six insist that they be allowed to act out their own story, instead of the company of professional actors, since they are already familiar with the story.
The whole series seems preposterous and that is one point of the drama that Pirandello brings to light. Here Pirandello mixes reality and art, with the appearance of reality imitating art, but it is actually art's imitation of reality. Or is it? This farcical sketch of man's fallibility in distinguishing one from the other is well worth the initial confusion that ensues upon reading the first pages.
This drama is in two acts, which can be read in around ninety minutes. A director and a company of actors are in preparation for their rehearsal. Then six people or characters - a father and his family - who have already made their way into the hall, interrupt them. They say they are in search of an author and intrude on to the stage. Incredulous and reluctant as the director is, not to mention the actors, the six characters are allowed to state their case piece by piece. The director thinks they are a crazy bunch of fools, but never has a chance to have them thrown out. Eventually he is persuaded by this family of characters and taken to their story. Subsequently he readies his actors to attempt it. But the six insist that they be allowed to act out their own story, instead of the company of professional actors, since they are already familiar with the story.
The whole series seems preposterous and that is one point of the drama that Pirandello brings to light. Here Pirandello mixes reality and art, with the appearance of reality imitating art, but it is actually art's imitation of reality. Or is it? This farcical sketch of man's fallibility in distinguishing one from the other is well worth the initial confusion that ensues upon reading the first pages.
October 2, 2024
I loved Six Characters in Search of an Author. It's so innovative and unique, the other two plays didn't do much for me though, unfortunately. They didn't keep my attention and I found them hard to follow.
March 14, 2025
Witty, pithy and entertaining to read. The titular play "Six Characters in Search of an Author" was my favourite, but I also liked the final play "So It Is (If You Think So). All three plays in this collection are farcical musings on the nature of reality, truth and fiction, and all are very metatheatrical. This was interesting at first, but it can get a bit grating over time, probably because I've been inundated with metafiction throughout my life. It was probably more groundbreaking when it was released.
May 31, 2007
One of the most progressive writers of 20th. century with a wonderful revolutionary look on human and history.
ایده ی این نمایش برای سال های ابتدای قرن بیستم، یک نبوغ است که به
زیبایی ترسیم شده. یک کمپانی بازیگری می خواهد نمایش نامه ی "قوانین بازی" را تمرین می کند. با شروع تمرینات، شش نفر ناشناس، غیر منتظره وارد می شوند و یکی از آنها ادعا می کند که ما شخصیت های کامل نشده ای هستیم، در جستجوی نویسنده ای تا داستانمان را تکمیل کند. گروه بازیگران، ابتدا می پندارند این شش نفر دیوانه اند. اما همین که آنان جزئیات داستان خود را روایت می کنند، کارگردان که جذب قصه شده، با وجود مخالفت بازیگران، می پذیرد تا داستان این شش نفر را روی صحنه بیاورد. شخصیت ها معتقدند که تنها آنها می باید در نقش خود بازی کنند و مایل اند همه چیز واقعی جلوه کند. کارگردان از بازیگران می خواهد تا تماشاگر صحنه باشند. وقایع بسیاری رخ می دهد، دختر خوانده (یکی از شخصیت ها) از دکور و وسایل راضی نیست، در لحظه ی آغار تمرین، خانم پیس (یکی دیگر از شخصیت ها) غایب است و پدر (شخصیتی دیگر) برای فریب، لباس های خانم پیس را روی لباس دیگران آویزان کرده تا غیبت او معلوم نشود، شخصیت مادر نیز، به صحنه معترض است. همین که بالاخره بخشی از صحنه تمرین می شود، کارگردان کار را متوقف می کند و از بازیگران می خواهد تا همان بخش را بازی کنند. اما شخصیت ها از این که بازیگران آنها را تقلید می کنند، به خنده می افتند و شخصیت دختر، از این که بازیگران قادر به تقلید صدا و حرکات او نیستند، نمی تواند خنده اش را متوقف کند. شخصیت پدر با کارگردان، در مورد واقع گرا��ی صحنه بحث می کند و شخصیت ها دوباره اجازه می یابند تا خود را بازی کنند. جدال میان واقعیت و بازی، با رضایت کارگردان از تمرین، محو می شود. در صحنه ی پایانی در باغ، وقتی دخترخوانده، بچه و پسر نزد پدر می مانند، و پدر به دنبال مادر می گردد، پسر اعتراف می کند که از خانواده متنفر است و دیگران را عضو خانواده نمی داند. صحنه با غرق دختر کوچولو در استخر، خودکشی پسربچه با هفت تیر و فرار دخترخوانده از تیاتر خاتمه می یابد. کارگردان که از این همه گیج شده، به این نتیجه می رسد که بهرحال روزش را خرج تشخیص واقعیت از ناواقعیت کرده. این نمایش نامه نیز با نام "شش شخصیت در جستجوی نویسنده" به فارسی برگردانده شده و در تهران روی صحنه رفته است.
ایده ی این نمایش برای سال های ابتدای قرن بیستم، یک نبوغ است که به
زیبایی ترسیم شده. یک کمپانی بازیگری می خواهد نمایش نامه ی "قوانین بازی" را تمرین می کند. با شروع تمرینات، شش نفر ناشناس، غیر منتظره وارد می شوند و یکی از آنها ادعا می کند که ما شخصیت های کامل نشده ای هستیم، در جستجوی نویسنده ای تا داستانمان را تکمیل کند. گروه بازیگران، ابتدا می پندارند این شش نفر دیوانه اند. اما همین که آنان جزئیات داستان خود را روایت می کنند، کارگردان که جذب قصه شده، با وجود مخالفت بازیگران، می پذیرد تا داستان این شش نفر را روی صحنه بیاورد. شخصیت ها معتقدند که تنها آنها می باید در نقش خود بازی کنند و مایل اند همه چیز واقعی جلوه کند. کارگردان از بازیگران می خواهد تا تماشاگر صحنه باشند. وقایع بسیاری رخ می دهد، دختر خوانده (یکی از شخصیت ها) از دکور و وسایل راضی نیست، در لحظه ی آغار تمرین، خانم پیس (یکی دیگر از شخصیت ها) غایب است و پدر (شخصیتی دیگر) برای فریب، لباس های خانم پیس را روی لباس دیگران آویزان کرده تا غیبت او معلوم نشود، شخصیت مادر نیز، به صحنه معترض است. همین که بالاخره بخشی از صحنه تمرین می شود، کارگردان کار را متوقف می کند و از بازیگران می خواهد تا همان بخش را بازی کنند. اما شخصیت ها از این که بازیگران آنها را تقلید می کنند، به خنده می افتند و شخصیت دختر، از این که بازیگران قادر به تقلید صدا و حرکات او نیستند، نمی تواند خنده اش را متوقف کند. شخصیت پدر با کارگردان، در مورد واقع گرا��ی صحنه بحث می کند و شخصیت ها دوباره اجازه می یابند تا خود را بازی کنند. جدال میان واقعیت و بازی، با رضایت کارگردان از تمرین، محو می شود. در صحنه ی پایانی در باغ، وقتی دخترخوانده، بچه و پسر نزد پدر می مانند، و پدر به دنبال مادر می گردد، پسر اعتراف می کند که از خانواده متنفر است و دیگران را عضو خانواده نمی داند. صحنه با غرق دختر کوچولو در استخر، خودکشی پسربچه با هفت تیر و فرار دخترخوانده از تیاتر خاتمه می یابد. کارگردان که از این همه گیج شده، به این نتیجه می رسد که بهرحال روزش را خرج تشخیص واقعیت از ناواقعیت کرده. این نمایش نامه نیز با نام "شش شخصیت در جستجوی نویسنده" به فارسی برگردانده شده و در تهران روی صحنه رفته است.
July 27, 2007
Pirandello is awesome. Clever, witty and marvelous.
Somewhere in the world there is a picture of me next to his statue in Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.
I'd like to have that picture back. I was skinny and had hair back then.
Anyway, can't recommend Pirandello enough.
Somewhere in the world there is a picture of me next to his statue in Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.
I'd like to have that picture back. I was skinny and had hair back then.
Anyway, can't recommend Pirandello enough.
December 7, 2010
Masterpiece. HILARIOUS masterpiece.
October 13, 2021
For a book that I read off and on for months (and therefore clearly not one I was particularly compelled by), I have to say I really enjoyed all three plays in this collection, and I can't decide which I liked best. The first (and titular) story is about a group of "characters" who show up during a play rehearsal (cleverly, the actors are rehearsing another of the actual author's plays). They claim to have been invented at some point but need someone to tell and finish their story, and they try to explain that they are not authors and not people but characters who have no choice but to be what they were written to be. They are somehow compelling to the director of the other play, who accepts their story despite not fully understanding or believing in them, and he tries to figure out how to tell their lives the way they want them told. However, the characters seem dismayed that the actors in this troupe are going to try to play them, and it's this odd dance between the characters trying to tell the actors how to portray them and telling the awful stories of their family drama and their lives. It's got this very creepy realism about it where they're both aware of the tragedy of what and who they are and also unaware of any exit they could have to the trap they're in--being compelled somehow to discuss their past, live it out, and exist in a strange balance with their inevitable fate while knowing it's both fictional and real.
The most intriguing bit about this story for me was when the characters couldn't stop criticizing the set and the acting that was supposed to be them, to the point that they got the director to listen to them in setting up a scene where another missing character was not present and THEY BASICALLY MADE HER APPEAR BY GETTING CLOSE ENOUGH WITH THE SET. This other character just showed up because she couldn't not; she was part of the original scene when it happened in their real fictional lives, so she appeared when it was time to do so. It felt like a Twilight Zone episode for a second. I also found the visuals of how the "masks" were described very interesting, and kept trying to picture the characters. The awful description of what happened to the stepdaughter when she is propositioned by the father and how that affects the mother is really well told. And the ending of course was really memorable.
The second play, "Henry IV," was similar to the first in that people are portraying other people and there is some confusion over who is engaged in a ruse. Henry IV is actually not Henry IV; he is a man (his real name isn't revealed) who fell off a horse and hit his head while PLAYING Henry IV in a costumed event, and when he came to he believed he really was Henry IV. After he was determined to be suffering from a consistent, longstanding delusion, others in his life decided he would be content living in a dwelling made to look like a royal castle, with servants paid to pretend they are living in the eleventh century. (My favorite thing was when they hired a new guy and he thought he was to be working for a more well-known Henry IV, so he studied the wrong Henry.) There's some really interesting discussion of the responsibility others have to the mad, and then some even more interesting developments when Henry confesses to some of the other characters that he used to be genuinely deluded but now knows it is modern times and he is not Henry IV--but still prefers the ruse to reality. I wasn't so into the plot where the daughter of his former crush is dressed up like her mother as an attempt to "shock" Henry into reality, but this is one of those plays where you end up thinking maybe everyone is kind of awful.
And the last play was probably the one I had the most fun with, "So It Is (If You Think So)." It was a bizarre situation where a group of nosy neighbors basically want to know what's going on with some folks living nearby, one of whom is a big shot in the local government. One neighbor is an old woman who claims her daughter is married to a man who loves her so much he won't let her go outside, so she has to communicate with her own mother in little notes passed between balconies. And the man claims that he once was married to the old woman's daughter, but the old woman is crazy and her daughter is actually dead, and now she thinks his second wife is her daughter and he doesn't let her see the old woman because that's awful and awkward. But the plot thickens! Because now the old woman says her original explanation is a cover story for when the man went crazy and . . . well, it just gets complicated, and soon the neighbors all have their doubts about who to believe. They want answers, and employ various methods to research records, talk to people who knew the parties from way back, and even go so far as to demand that they get to talk to the wife/daughter. What's the real story? Uh . . . well, nobody knows. Do we care? Yes, but maybe no, but maybe yes. Okay! That was a lot of fun and I loved the absurdity.
The most intriguing bit about this story for me was when the characters couldn't stop criticizing the set and the acting that was supposed to be them, to the point that they got the director to listen to them in setting up a scene where another missing character was not present and THEY BASICALLY MADE HER APPEAR BY GETTING CLOSE ENOUGH WITH THE SET. This other character just showed up because she couldn't not; she was part of the original scene when it happened in their real fictional lives, so she appeared when it was time to do so. It felt like a Twilight Zone episode for a second. I also found the visuals of how the "masks" were described very interesting, and kept trying to picture the characters. The awful description of what happened to the stepdaughter when she is propositioned by the father and how that affects the mother is really well told. And the ending of course was really memorable.
The second play, "Henry IV," was similar to the first in that people are portraying other people and there is some confusion over who is engaged in a ruse. Henry IV is actually not Henry IV; he is a man (his real name isn't revealed) who fell off a horse and hit his head while PLAYING Henry IV in a costumed event, and when he came to he believed he really was Henry IV. After he was determined to be suffering from a consistent, longstanding delusion, others in his life decided he would be content living in a dwelling made to look like a royal castle, with servants paid to pretend they are living in the eleventh century. (My favorite thing was when they hired a new guy and he thought he was to be working for a more well-known Henry IV, so he studied the wrong Henry.) There's some really interesting discussion of the responsibility others have to the mad, and then some even more interesting developments when Henry confesses to some of the other characters that he used to be genuinely deluded but now knows it is modern times and he is not Henry IV--but still prefers the ruse to reality. I wasn't so into the plot where the daughter of his former crush is dressed up like her mother as an attempt to "shock" Henry into reality, but this is one of those plays where you end up thinking maybe everyone is kind of awful.
And the last play was probably the one I had the most fun with, "So It Is (If You Think So)." It was a bizarre situation where a group of nosy neighbors basically want to know what's going on with some folks living nearby, one of whom is a big shot in the local government. One neighbor is an old woman who claims her daughter is married to a man who loves her so much he won't let her go outside, so she has to communicate with her own mother in little notes passed between balconies. And the man claims that he once was married to the old woman's daughter, but the old woman is crazy and her daughter is actually dead, and now she thinks his second wife is her daughter and he doesn't let her see the old woman because that's awful and awkward. But the plot thickens! Because now the old woman says her original explanation is a cover story for when the man went crazy and . . . well, it just gets complicated, and soon the neighbors all have their doubts about who to believe. They want answers, and employ various methods to research records, talk to people who knew the parties from way back, and even go so far as to demand that they get to talk to the wife/daughter. What's the real story? Uh . . . well, nobody knows. Do we care? Yes, but maybe no, but maybe yes. Okay! That was a lot of fun and I loved the absurdity.
October 13, 2021
Three plays, all covering (in some way) people portraying people they are not, while involving other people in various ruses for various purposes. In one, six characters search for an author who can carry their stories into reality, as they struggle with their fate of being unable to be anything other than what they were written to be and having to see actors take up their identities to portray them (even as they go through the motions of their own lives). In another, a man with a head injury wakes up thinking he's Henry IV, and when the delusion seems incurable his family arranges to accommodate the delusion, only to later find out how long the delusion actually persists and what keeps "Henry" in his royal life now. And in the last, a man, his wife, and his wife's mother have a complicated relationship in which the man and mother-in-law both tell various stories to the neighbors to explain the peculiarities of their interactions; is the man lying that his mother-in-law is crazy and only THINKS his wife is her daughter, or is the mother lying to protect the sanity of the man who believes his wife is a different person? (Hey, why doesn't someone ask the wife? And why doesn't that seem to solve anything?)
The importance of truth--and the way lies can become a type of living truth--is a theme throughout all of these plays. It's very entertaining to get caught up in the drama of each of these micro-cultures of families with very peculiar, specific problems and get invested in what is going to happen (even when there are quite a lot of characters you're not meant to exactly like).
The importance of truth--and the way lies can become a type of living truth--is a theme throughout all of these plays. It's very entertaining to get caught up in the drama of each of these micro-cultures of families with very peculiar, specific problems and get invested in what is going to happen (even when there are quite a lot of characters you're not meant to exactly like).
July 3, 2020
Tre pjäser i denna lilla samling, och två av dem var jag till och med lite intresserad av. Den första - Six Characters in Search of an Author - var en lite rolig variant av plot bunnies taking over, men det var också lite intressanta resonemang kring äkthet: den fiktiva karaktären (eller kanske snarare författarens vision av den fiktiva karaktären) vs skådespelarens tolkning av karaktären, men också den fiktiva karaktärens historia som fast och evig vs verkliga människors föränderliga upplevelser och historia. Lite kul ändå.
Och även den sista - So it is (if you think so) - hade poänger kring vår besatthet av att fastställa en ”sanning” kring ett händelseförlopp, behovet av faställandet av EN enkel version är större än behovet och tålamodet att reda ut, och det överskuggar definitivt förmågan att försöka leva med något som är vagt, oklart och inte entydigt ”sant”. Bland det svåraste som finns är att acceptera att det inte finns sanning, eller snarare att det finns så många sanningar som det finns människor som upplever en händelse. Också lite kul.
Däremot pjäs nr 2 - Henry IV - förstod jag knappt ens, och kunde inte ens riktigt förmå mig att läsa ordentligt. Inte så kul.
Sen är karaktärerna genomgående olidliga, allihopa, inte en sympatisk karaktär bland hela hopen, och språket är onaturligt (det här ska ändå spelas upp som dialog!) och olidligt det också. Inte en pärla, det här, men ändå lite intresseväckande. Så tre stjärnor.
Och även den sista - So it is (if you think so) - hade poänger kring vår besatthet av att fastställa en ”sanning” kring ett händelseförlopp, behovet av faställandet av EN enkel version är större än behovet och tålamodet att reda ut, och det överskuggar definitivt förmågan att försöka leva med något som är vagt, oklart och inte entydigt ”sant”. Bland det svåraste som finns är att acceptera att det inte finns sanning, eller snarare att det finns så många sanningar som det finns människor som upplever en händelse. Också lite kul.
Däremot pjäs nr 2 - Henry IV - förstod jag knappt ens, och kunde inte ens riktigt förmå mig att läsa ordentligt. Inte så kul.
Sen är karaktärerna genomgående olidliga, allihopa, inte en sympatisk karaktär bland hela hopen, och språket är onaturligt (det här ska ändå spelas upp som dialog!) och olidligt det också. Inte en pärla, det här, men ändå lite intresseväckande. Så tre stjärnor.
March 4, 2019
I read this play years ago, and I recently put it on my reading list because it such an influential play of the 20th century. The play sets the stage for future absurdist plays of the 1950’s and forces my students to engage with a meta-theatrical work.
I’m not sure I like this term “meta-“ anymore because I think that since writing was invented, literature has contained elements and structures that force the reader to realize he is engaging with artifice.
I’m not sure I like this term “meta-“ anymore because I think that since writing was invented, literature has contained elements and structures that force the reader to realize he is engaging with artifice.
August 15, 2018
This is a classic of absurdist theater written in 1921... while a manager is directing another Pirandello play six characters show up without an author and only a sketchy plot. It's a bit disconcerting...BUT it makes us think about the difference between reality the unreality of drama.
This is considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.
This is considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.
February 6, 2018
So glad a friend found me this book of plays! Intelligent farces with curious characters, full of personality and wit. 'So It Is', the last play stands out as the extremes of curiousity of strangers - town gossip gone wild.
January 16, 2021
An absolutely original thinker in the world of playwriting. Even a century there are so many modern elements and pathways to follow that I feel he will surely be relevant and challenging for a long time to come.
August 16, 2019
Provocative plays that dwell on the nature of reality, the fictions we create for ourselves and the tenuousness of sanity.
March 8, 2021
I really enjoyed these plays, shame Pirandello was a fascist
December 17, 2021
Now I want to see Six Characters staged.
May 4, 2022
Non di facile comprensione. In fondo siamo tutti personaggi in cerca di autore.
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November 29, 2022did i write a 4 page paper on this? yes. do i understand what it's about? no not really
March 5, 2023
3.5 rounded down to 3/5 stars. (Goodreads, get half-stars.)
I definitely need to see these performed. Reading them was wholly unsatisfying.
I definitely need to see these performed. Reading them was wholly unsatisfying.
October 25, 2024
Lucid, profound and dramatic. Truly great pieces of work.
The reader is confronted with multiple realities in a maele of fantastic penmanship laced with humour and vulnerability.
The reader is confronted with multiple realities in a maele of fantastic penmanship laced with humour and vulnerability.
December 28, 2024
Why can’t he just tell me what’s real?!?!?! 7/10.
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