MILAN – Luigi Pirandello is considered perhaps the most important theatrical author of the twentieth century in Italy. Today we remember his birth, which took place on June 28, 1867 in Agrigento. Revolutionary, introspective, existentialist, he was able to probe the human soul in his own way. Sensitive and curious, prolific observer and writer, he has given us priceless works. Let’s see the four most famous plays of the Sicilian artist. Six characters in search of an author
This is certainly Pirandello’s most famous work. It is considered the first work of the trilogy of the theater in the theater, together with Tonight we recite a subject and Each one in his own way. The story centers on some actors who are preparing a play. At the base of the process carried out by the characters is the decomposition of the theatrical space, the difficulties in communicating, the consequent loneliness… A sentence clarifies the author’s intent: “We all have a world of things inside: each one of his own world of things! And how can we understand each other, sir, if in the words I say I put the meaning and value of things as they are within me; while whoever listens to them inevitably assumes them with the sense and value they have for themselves, of the world as they have it inside
. We believe we understand each other; we never understand each other! “.So and (if you like)
Absolute masterpiece, and taken from the short story Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, her son-in-law. The work focuses on the unknowability of reality, of which everyone can give their own interpretation that may not coincide with that of the others. Thus a relativism of forms, conventions and exteriority is generated, an impossibility of knowing the absolute truth which is well represented by the character Laudisi. An excerpt clarifies its nature: “I see you so anxious to try to know who others are and things as they are, as if others and things for themselves were like this or so … but in your opinion, then you will never be able to know the truth
If we no longer have to believe even in what we see and touch! But yes, believe it, lady! So I tell her: respect what others see and touch, even if it is the opposite of what you see and touch “There is an absolute truth.
You can have a certain vision of what surrounds us
“. Henry IV
Considered to be Pirandello’s theatrical masterpiece and a study on the meaning of madness. A theme dear to the author and which recurs in various types of works. At the center of the theatrical debate is the complex and ultimately inextricable relationship between character and man, fiction and truth. The piece tells the story of a nobleman from the early 1900s who takes part in a ride in costume. The protagonist plays Henry IV, and once thrown off his rival by love Belcredi, he truly believes that he is the historical character personified. The character whose real name Pirandello does not reveal to us, and not surprisingly, is the victim not only of madness, initially true but then simulated, but of the inability to adapt to a reality that no longer suits him: “I preferred to stay crazy and live my madness with the clearest conscience […] this is for me the obvious and voluntary caricature of this other masquerade, continuous, every minute, of which we are the involuntary clowns when without to know it we disguise ourselves as what we seem to be […] I am cured, gentlemen: because I know perfectly well that I am crazy here; and I do it, quiet! – The trouble is for you who live it agitatedly, without knowing it and without seeing it, your madness. […] This is my life! It’s not yours! – Yours, in which you have grown old, I have not lived! ”. and I do it, quiet! – The trouble is for you who live it agitatedly, without knowing it and without seeing it, your madness. […] This is my life! It’s not yours! – Yours, in which you have grown old, I have not lived! ”. and I do it, quiet! – The trouble is for you who live it agitatedly, without knowing it and without seeing it, your madness. […] This is my life! It’s not yours! – Yours, in which you have grown old, I have not lived! ”.The man with the flower in the mouth
The man with the flower in the mouth is one of the most staged Pirandello works even today. A unique act, example of the bourgeois drama that exalts the incommunicability and relativity of the lived experience. The plot reveals the story of a man who knows he has to die and for this reason meditates on existence. Pirandello’s poetry already emerges from the way he presents the sick man, his flower in his mouth and an incurable tumor. Famous and the final monologue: “If death, my lord, were like one of those strange, disgusting insects, which someone unexpectedly discovers on us… You pass by; another passer-by, suddenly, stops him and, cautiously, with two fingers stretched out, says to her: “Excuse me, allow
You, dear sir, have death on us ”. And with those two fingers outstretched, she grabs it and throws it away… That would be wonderful! But death is not like one of these disgusting insects ”.
