1997 – 1998 Chiaravalle (Ancona
A theatre of reality

Six characters in search of an author
by L. Pirandello

Pirandello’s works put emphasis on the relationship between inner and outer reality, on the individuals‘ “inside” and “outside”, making it clear how modern society – even though providing new opportunities of knowledge and experiences – helped furthering a splitting and shattering of personal identity.
“Here’s the drama” says the Father: “we all, you see, think of ourselves as one single person: but it’s not true: each of us is several different people, and all these people live inside us”. Hence the actors’ difficulty in identifying with a character. Twentieth century brings to an end the nineteenth century theatre tradition based on the illusory identification with a character. Six characters in search of an author, written in 1921, is focused just on the impossibility of reconstructing the links actor-character and actor-drama. This text contributed to a radical change in European theatre, bringing nineteenth century to an end and turning over a new page.
The crisis of traditional drama is reflected in this parable, where the six characters burst in the daily life of a troupe introducing themselves to the leader of the company as creatures refused by the Author, who is no more willing to conduct his creation the whole way through. Just because they’re living creatures, they suffer from seeing themselves performed by the actors in a partial and fundamentally false manner.
In the absurd finale, the actors and the leader of the troupe themselves will end up not being able anymore to distinguish dream and dramatic fiction from reality.

CET Theatre Educational Centre
Academic year 1997 – 1998, Artistic Director: Mario Gallo

Theatre Educational Centre