Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author) is a 1921 Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, first performed in that same year. A satirical tragicomedy, it premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome to a mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" ("Madhouse!"), though the reception improved at subsequent performances — helped, in 1925, when Pirandello for the play's third edition provided a foreword clarifying its structure and ideas. Six Characters in Search of an Author played in 1922 on Broadway at the Princess Theatre.

Plot

An acting company prepares to rehearse a play, The Rules of the Game by Luigi Pirandello. As the rehearsal is about to begin the play is unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of six strange people. The Director of the play, furious at the interruption, demands an explanation. The Father explains that they are unfinished characters in search of an author to finish their story. The Director initially believes them to be mad, but as they begin to argue amongst themselves and reveal details of their story he begins to listen. While he isn't an author, the Director agrees to stage their story despite the disbelief amongst the jeering actors.

After a 20 minute break the Characters and the Company return to the stage to act out some of the story so far. They begin to act out the scene between the Stepdaughter and the Father in Madame Pace's shop, which the Director decides to call Scene I. The Characters are very particular about the setting, wanting everything to be as realistic as possible. The Director asks the Actors to observe the scene for he intends for them to act it out later. This sparks the first argument between the Director and the Characters over the acting of the play, with the Characters assuming that they would be acting it out seeing as they are the Characters already. The Director moves the play on anyway, but the Stepdaughter has more problems with the accuracy of the setting, saying she doesn't recognize the scene. Just as the Director is about to begin the scene once more he realizes that Madame Pace is not with them. The Actors watch in disbelief as The Father lures her to the stage by hanging their coats and hats on racks, "attracted by the very articles of her trade".

The scene begins between Madame Pace and the Stepdaughter, with Madame Pace exhorting The Step-Daughter, telling her she must work harder herself to save the Mother's job. The Mother protests at having to watch the scene, but she is restrained. After the Father and Stepdaughter act half of the scene the Director stops them so that the Actors may act out what they have just done. The Characters break into laughter as the Actors try to imitate them. They continue but The Step-Daughter cannot contain her laughter as the Actors use the wrong tones of voice and gestures. The Father begins another argument with the Director over the realism of the Actors compared to the Characters themselves. The Director allows the Characters to act out the rest of the scene and have the rehearsals later.

This time the Stepdaughter explains the rest of the scene during an argument with the Director over the truth on stage. The scene culminates in an embrace between the Father and the Stepdaughter which is realistically broken up by the distressed Mother. The line between reality and acting is blurred as the scene closes with the Director pleased with the first act.

The final act of the play begins in the garden. It was revealed that there was much arguing amongst the family members as The Father sent for The Mother, The Stepdaughter, The Child, The Boy, and The Son to come back and stay with him. The Son reveals that he hates the family for sending him away and does not consider The Stepdaughter or the others a part of his family. The scene ends with The Child drowning in a fountain and The Boy committing suicide with a revolver. The final lines end with The Director confused over whether it was real or not, concluding that whether it was real or not he lost a whole day over it.

Analysis

According to Professor Grant L. Voth of Monterey Peninsula College, Pirandello was part of a movement in the early 20th century called theatricalism or anti-illusionism. The theatricalists rejected realist drama and substituted the dreamlike, the expressive, and the symbolic. The theatricalists disapproved of realism because it had abandoned the defining tools of drama, such as poetry, interaction between actors and audience, soliloquies, asides and bare stages. They thought realism could not depict the inner life of human beings.

Première

The play was staged in 1921 by the Compagnia di Dario Niccomedi at the Valle di Roma to mixed results. The public split up into supporters and adversaries. The author, who was present at the presentation with his daughter Lietta, was forced almost literally to run out of the theatre through a side exit in order to avoid the crowd of enemies. This same drama, however, was a great success when presented at Milan.

Adaptations

• 1954: Redaction by Tyrone Guthrie produced in New York.
• 1959: Six Characters in Search of an Author, an opera by Hugo Weisgall, libretto adapted from Pirandello by Denis Johnston.
• 1973: Danmarks Radio's public television adaptation, Seks roller søger en forfatter.
• 1976: PBS television adaptation directed by Stacy Keach (now available on DVD), and starring Andy Griffith, and Stacy's brother James Keach.
• 1992: BBC film adaptation directed by Bill Bryden.
• 1996: Robert Brustein adaptation for the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA.
• 2008: Produced in the Minerva Theatre, Chichester. This production transferred to The Gielgud Theatre, London for a limited run. Adapted by Ben Power and Rupert Goold. Directed by Rupert Goold

See also

• A Sensation Novel – another play of the same genre from the 1870s by W. S. Gilbert
• At Swim-Two-Birds – novel by Flann O'Brien
• "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" – an episode of The Twilight Zone
• "Six Charlies in Search of An Author" – an episode of The Goon Show
• An Author in Search of Six Characters – the second volume of Giuseppe Bergman's adventures, by Italian adult meta-comic book creator Milo Manara
• "Two Characters in Search of a Country Song" – a Magnetic Fields song
• The Dark Tower (series) – an epic series of books by Stephen King
• "Six Characters in Search of a House" – an episode of King of the Hill
• Five Characters in Search of an Author – The Simpsons Game phase

External links

• Online text of Six Characters in Search of an Author (English version by Edward Storer)
• Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore at Project Gutenberg (In original Italian; Pirandello's revised version)
• Pirandello, Luigi. "Pirandello Confesses . . .: Why and How He Wrote 'Six Characters in Search of an Author'", Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1925.
• Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Internet Broadway Database
• An alternative translation: Pirandello, Luigi (trans. Mulrine) Six Characters in Search of an Author, Nick Hern Books, London, 2003