By Ferdinando Morabito.Â
The fame of the Sicilian author quickly becomes overwhelming, leading him to the highest recognition in the literary field, namely the awarding of the Nobel Prize in 1934. The reason stated reads: “For his courage and ingenious re-presentation of dramatic and theatrical art.”
Il âcaosâ creativo: la rivoluzione teatrale di Pirandello
We are in 1921, at the Teatro Valle in Rome, on May 9: the audience in the hall does not yet know what is about to happen or the enormous significance of the work that will be staged that evening. The fact is that, before their incredulous eyes, many people witness the main drama written by Luigi Pirandello, one of the most important literary figures in Italy and around the world: âSix Characters in Search of an Author.â This extraordinary artist, born near what is now Agrigento (then called Girgenti), came into the world in a house located in a place called âCaos,â a curiosity that has always been associated with Pirandelloâs creative chaos, according to the belief in a predetermined destiny. His immense creative energy drives the author to write works destined to revolutionize the literary standards of the time and to profoundly impact thought and society; titles such as âOne, No One and One Hundred Thousandâ or âThe Late Mattia Pascal,â along with an endless production of short stories and novels that expertly depict the vices and virtues of the era and open new horizons for reflection through an incredible psychological analysis of the characters, make this writer a sacred monster of literature.
But in addition to this extraordinary and boundless narrative production, Pirandello added an intense and passionate work in the field that ultimately consecrated him: that is, theater. In what is defined as the âthird phaseâ of Pirandelloâs theater, the work âSix Characters in Search of an Authorâ stands out, a drama that embodies to the highest degree the desire to break down the âfourth wall,â that is, the invisible, merely conceptual separation between the audience and the stage. This play is so revolutionary that it astonishes the audience in the hall, who respond with torrents of boos, yelling âInsanity! Insanity!â
The plot features a theater company intent on representing another work by Pirandello, âThe Rules of the Game,â but it is interrupted by the entrance of six characters who ask the actors to perform another storyâtheir own: they recount having been created and then abandoned by an author. This is the first work of the trilogy âTheater within Theater,â and although the drama did not meet with success in terms of public approval at its first performance, it did achieve its goal of engaging the audience, who were called to participate in the show rather than merely consuming it passively. Only with the edition of 1925, in which Pirandello provides a preface to explain the themes and intentions of the work, did this piece become a major success with the public.
The fame of the Sicilian author quickly becomes overwhelming, leading to the highest recognition in the literary field, namely, the Nobel Prize awarded in 1934: the motivation reads: âFor his courage and the ingenious re-presentation of dramatic and theatrical art.â
âSix Characters in Search of an Authorâ is his most representative theatrical work, the âsummaâ of his art, a sort of manifesto of his infinite creativity: it propels him strongly among the great masters of the 20th century, originating a consciousness of decomposition and a âtheatricalâ (and sometimes paradoxical) view of life that, even today, in common language, is called âpirandellian,â which resonates so much with Chaos.
Ferdinando Morabito
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