... First performed in Rome in May 1921, "Six Players in Search of an Author" initially caused riots in the audience, but soon was recognized as a masterpiece. The story begins with a director about to start a rehearsal with a company of actors when the stage is invaded by six people who announce that they are characters - fully-formed characters - from an unwritten play. They demand that the company stop its rehearsal and act out their story instead, which is full of bitterness, passion and accusation. In this 'play within a play', Pirandalo mocks the world of naturalistic drama, as we explore the complex relationship between art and life; anticipating the theatre of Brecht, Beckett and Ionesco.

[ From the Publisher ] This CBC Audio was produced in association with The Shaw Festival with full cast, sound effects and original music at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The translation is by Domenico Pietropaolo. [ amazon ] 2006-2007

... Doll House * Ms. Julie : distance and change -- why?

... [ The issue of a mask on the face is extended here to include anyone performing in a play. The actors, or the "dramatis personae", literally mean the masks in the play. This will set up one of the conflicts, namely the fact that the characters do not have masks, and in that sense are more real than the actors who try to portray them later. ] *

[ It turns the play into a form of meta-theater, in which the audience is incorporated into the play and where the characters contemplate on the nature of theater. ]

[ The silence of children is a wonderful dramatic effect. Their silence is necessary because they are already dead, as we find out when the father informs the manager that they both die in the final scene. ] new chronotope = subjective time... and space?

conflicts -- list

Act 2

... There are therefore two realities: one consisting of the actors and their props, and one comprised of the characters.

[ What is TRUTH ? ]

Act 3 :

Pirandello deals here with the immutability of reality for the characters. There is a conflict of life versus form, where the characters are forms. These forms imprison them into the action they were imagined for, and it is involuntary for them to be what they are. Thus the son tries to escape his form, but cannot leave the stage. This contrasts with Pirandello's previous work, Henry IV, where Henry at least can choose to remain in his role. Here the Mother and Son struggle against their forms, but are unable to leave and must play their parts.
This final moment of drama is primarily an attempt to disintegrate the stage reality. The sense of illusion with respect to reality is challenged, and the manager and his actors are left unsure whether what they witnessed really happened or whether it was all acting. Of course, both interpretations are accurate, because for the characters it was real whereas for the actors it is a scene that can be played again. Pirandello is saying that the tradition of reality in the theater is false.

... and Brecht [ Theatre ] ?!