LUIGI PIRANDELLO

1867–1937

hen Pirandello received the Nobel fashionable and advanced European dra-
W Prize in Literature in 1934, at the
age of sixty-seven, he was widely known as
matist of his age.
Luigi Pirandello was born into a
the author of intricate philosophical com- nineteenth-century Sicily where a small
edies. One in par ticular, six characters landowning class lorded over impoverished
in search of an author (1921), had cata- peasants. It was a society with many linger-
pulted him onto the international scene ing feudal structures and a deeply tradi-
in the early 1920s, leading to acclaimed tional literature and culture to go with it.
per for mances all over Europe and the Pirandello himself was rather fortunate,
Americas. Like his contemporaries george since his father was quite wealthy and was
bernard shaw for the English-speaking therefore capable of financing Pirandello’s
world and Maurice Maeterlinck for the studies in Rome, his doctorate at the Uni-
French-speaking world, Pirandello became versity of Bonn, and his early career as a
the Italian representative of the New writer. Despite his cosmopolitan educa-
Drama. Pirandello’s worldwide success tion, however, Pirandello did not reject
occurred relatively late in his life, at the the social values of Sicily and agreed to
end of a busy writing career that included an arranged marriage to Antonietta Por-
hundreds of short stories, dozens of early tulano, the daughter of one of his father’s
plays, and a handful of novels as well as business partners, whom he barely knew.
essays, a dissertation in linguistics, and His marriage of 1894, business interests,
several fi lm scripts. Outside Italy, how- the sulfur mine— these were the pillars of
ever, Pirandello’s name remained tied to Pirandello’s life. But they did not last. His
the invention of a new, intellectual drama father’s fortune and his wife’s dowry were
thriving on arguments, paradoxes, and heavily invested in a mine that was flooded
inversions. These plays, of which Six in 1903, and everything was lost. In the
Characters is the best known, apply their meantime, Pirandello had begun teaching
wit to the theater itself, turning actors, at a women’s college in Rome, an occupa-
directors, and dramatic authors into the tion he continued until his international
material from which to fashion outrageous breakthrough in the early twenties. Just as
plots and farfetched conceits. Somehow, the economic foundations of his life crum-
Pirandello managed to transform himself bled, so did the personal ones. His wife was
from an author of local and rather tradi- subject to increasingly pathological fits of
tional novellas and plays into the most jealousy and other delusional behavior,
945
94 6 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO

and Pirandello retired more and more from ning for the future modern dramatist, but
social life, maintaining his three children it gave him a first taste of the pleasures of
and suffering from an untenable domestic the theater, which would come to full frui-
arrangement until Antonietta was eventu- tion in his most successful plays. Musco’s
ally committed to a mental institution in group acted in a style reminiscent of the
1914. commedia dell’arte, the tradition of impro-
In the early twentieth century, Piran- vised theater based on fi xed types that are
dello withdrew from life, but he also often accentuated with masks. Pirandello
became a prolific writer of short stories, continued to use this technique later in
with which he supplemented his teacher’s his career: for example, in Six Characters,
income. Over the years, he perfected his where a number of actors wear such masks.
command of the genre and reissued selected Indeed, it was Carlo Goldoni (1707–
short stories in a collection, Novellas for a 1793), the playwright most closely associ-
Year (15 vols., 1922–37), that still enjoys ated with commedia dell’arte, rather than
great popularity in Italy. Pirandello’s later henrik ibsen, Shaw, or any of the other
mastery of drama can be traced back to modern dramatists, who was Pirandello’s
these works. Like drama, the short story is favorite playwright. Pirandello’s best
a genre that requires economy and con- and best-known dialect play, Liolà (1916),
straint and is often built around very few whose plot is taken entirely from the first
scenes and exchanges. Pirandello would chapters of his novel The Late Mattia Pas-
frequently recycle his short stories in his cal (1904), is representative of this phase
dramas, including Six Characters. of his work in that it revolves around fer-
The world in which Pirandello had tility, adultery, and the necessity of pro-
grown up had fallen to pieces, but it con- ducing an heir. Yet all these subjects are
tinued to make itself felt in his literary presented in a par ticular form of comedy.
work. His short stories, novels, and plays In a long essay written to qualify for his
often revolve around closed family struc- teaching position, Pirandello had defined
tures made insufferable by arranged mar- humor as the collision of ideals and harsh
riages, jealousy, and betrayal. They are reality, as a sentiment of contradiction, as
set in deeply patriarchal worlds in which a moment when one position merges with
women are seen as mothers, virgins, or its opposite, and as an art of quick rever-
whores. Even when Pirandello shows the sals and inversions. This theory of humor
extent to which these roles lead to patholo- underlies much of Pirandello’s later drama.
gies, he held on to them to the end. His Despite some considerable success in the
acclaimed comedies, such as Six Charac- theater, however, Pirandello still viewed it
ters and Henry IV (1922), with their plays- as a secondary art form. He put actors in
within-the-play, philosophizing characters, the same category as illustrators of novels
and modern structures, contain under or translators— merely necessary but lam-
their surface the traditional plots of mar- entable vehicles for bringing works of lit-
riage and fertility, jealousy and adultery erature to the public. But over time, he
that are premised on the most traditional became more interested in theatrical repre-
of family roles. Pirandello could never sentation as well as in modernist forms of
quite let go of Sicily— even during his time literature and drama. The fi rst of his
in Germany, when he studied philology modernist plays, It Is So! (If You Think So)
and philosophy at Bonn, he chose as his (1917), introduced the philosophizing rai-
dissertation subject the Sicilian dialects of sonneur— a character that comments on
his home region. the main action of the play, expressing
A similar fascination with Sicily also skepticism about the truth of appear-
prompted Pirandello to turn from the ances. More important than the validity
short story to drama. After having become of this skepticism as a philosophical posi-
acquainted with a Sicilian dialect theater tion is its close relation to Pirandello’s
group headed by the charismatic Angelo theory of humor, which is premised on
Musco, Pirandello started writing dialect sudden reversals and quick changes from
plays of high passion and melodrama. It one appearance to the next. Many of his
was a traditionalist and provincial begin- later plays, including Six Characters,
 LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO | 94 7

Henry IV, and Each in His Own Way ters are putatively searching for an author
(1923), exploit philosophical relativism as who will write down their story, that story
a vehicle for a comedy, and they often rely already exists within them. The real con-
on the figure of the raisonneur. Because flict breaks out not over how to transform
of the prominence of this figure in many these characters into a play but over how
of his plays, Pirandello’s works are some- to bring the story that they represent onto
times considered too theoretical or intel- the stage. The title, in this sense, is a mis-
lectual, too dependent on words and nomer, one that can be explained by the
conceits. But in his most successful plays, history of the play’s composition; like
Pirandello manages to draw these explana- many of Pirandello’s dramas, it originated
tory figures into the action, exposing their as a short story. In fact, it originated as
own blindness, missteps, and mistakes. three short stories, all of which featured
After decades of writing more or less real- “characters” appearing before an author
istic literature set in Sicily and Rome, and demanding to be turned into litera-
Pirandello found that the theater formed ture: “Character” (1906), “A Character’s
the perfect setting and subject matter for Tragedy” (1911), and “Interview of Char-
his art. acters” (1915). But once this conceit is
The best-known and most cunning of transported to the theater, characters and
these plays about theater is Six Charac- actors engage in a struggle over the ques-
ters. Here Pirandello highlights the differ- tion of what it means to stage a play.
ence between the fi xed dramatic text and While the characters demand absolute
its ever-changing per for mances by stag- fidelity to their story, the director and the
ing a confl ict between two groups: a set actors recast that story into one suitable
of characters and the actors who want to for the theater. They simplify the plot,
impersonate these characters according reduce the number of scenes, and do
to the traditions and rules of theatrical everything necessary for an audience to be
representation. Even though the charac- able to follow the play.

A production of Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Young Vic Theatre, London, 2001.
Pictured here are (left to right) Darrel D’Silva as the Director, Liza Sadovy as the Leading Lady, and
Dale Rapley as the Leading Man.
94 8 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO

Having characters appear onstage as relive it on the stage was something Piran-
characters and not as full-fledged persons dello had absorbed from the Italian critic
creates a number of interesting problems Adriano Tilgher. Tilgher supplied Piran-
and conundrums, which Pirandello exploits dello with an aesthetic philosophy, bor-
to the full. Since the story is enclosed inside rowed from such theorists as Henri Bergson
these characters, they have to tell their (1859–1941) and Friedrich Nietzsche
story to the director and the actors so that (1844–1900), according to which life is a
it can be brought to the stage. Most of the perpetual chaos onto which the human
narration is done by the father, another ver- mind seeks to impose order and form. Art,
sion of Pirandello’s raisonneur figure; he in Tilgher’s view, is the highest imposition of
also explains the predicament of the actors, form onto life, connecting the ever-changing
who are caught in their roles and hope to with eternal and ideal forms. Pirandello
find release through an author. Far from realized that this difference between eternal
being detached observers, however, these works of art and ever-changing life corre-
characters, including the father, are fully sponded directly to the relation between a
immersed in their story and therefore lack fi xed literary text and its ever-new perfor-
the capacity to tell it coherently and suc- mances through live actors. This insight
cinctly. Every time they begin to narrate was put into practice most brilliantly in
what happened and how it happened, they Pirandello’s plays about the theater. Some
“fall into character,” as the common theat- of these metatheatrical pieces—Six Char-
rical idiom has it—that is, they stop narrat- acters, Each in His Own Way, and Tonight
ing and start feeling and enacting their We Improvise (1930)—actually take place
plight. Indeed, they are entirely trapped in the theater, but many others that draw
inside their story and are forced to live it on the same aesthetic theory do not.
over and over again. It is only at the very end Six Characters, and Pirandello’s meta-
of the play, after many conflicts between theater more generally, has a more sinister,
characters and actors, that the audience political side, which is often ignored: it
can surmise that story’s contours. supplied the language in which Pirandello
But living the story is one thing, playing formulated his strong and unwavering alle-
it is another. While the characters feel giance to Benito Mussolini and Italian fas-
their passions, the actors need to represent cism. Pirandello favored a powerful leader
them. The director and the actors in this who could stand above the chaos of demo-
play argue directly against the common cratic multiplicity and lead the country
critique of acting as falsifying the author’s with a strong and fatherly hand. In Musso-
intentions (a position Pirandello himself lini he got precisely the leader he was look-
had maintained early in his career)— or, ing for. He met Mussolini in 1923 and
more precisely, they prove the necessity of immediately began to heap praise on him in
such falsifications in the interest of art. Six the right-wing press, in the precise terms of
Characters is thus essentially a play about his aesthetic doctrine—namely, as a strong
acting, about theater, about the rules and leader capable of imposing onto the chaos
integrity of theatrical representation. As of the nation a single and eternal form.
eccentric and unusual as this piece of Pirandello thus envisioned Mussolini as the
metatheater may be, the actual story inside artist of the Italian nation. The playwright
the characters is strikingly traditional. It is who often declared that his art had nothing
precisely the kind of story that had popu- to do with his politics here treated politics
lated Pirandello’s earlier works, featuring as if it were nothing but an extension of art.
an adulterous affair, a separation between Pirandello’s antidemocratic and pro-
husband and wife, the threat of incest, and fascist sympathies were not isolated
rivalries between stepsiblings, as well as moments of enthusiasm but were deeply
hatred and shame. Six Characters is meta- felt. Indeed, he made his strongest gesture
theater, but metatheater with a traditional, of support for fascism at a time of the move-
melodramatic core. ment’s greatest weakness, after fascist sup-
The difference between the unchang- porters had brutally murdered a socialist
ing eternal play to which the characters member of parliament, Giacomo Matteotti.
are tied and its variations every time they Rather than being outraged at this level of
 SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 949

brutality, as many otherwise sympathetic theater, he supplied enough to enable

to fascism were, Pirandello publicly declared Pirandello’s theater company to tour
his allegiance to the National Fascist Party Europe and the Americas with Six Charac-
and finally applied for membership. This ters and other plays, thereby functioning, as
political dimension may also account for a Pirandello never tired of telling Mussolini,
somewhat puzzling aspect of Pirandello’s as cultural ambassadors for fascist Italy.
work: its violence. Even and especially his These tours also exposed Pirandello to
most philosophical and metatheatrical Europe’s most innovative directors, such as
plays end with acts of extreme violence; the Russian Nikolai Evreinov and the Aus-
Six Characters, for instance, culminates in trian Max Reinhardt, who had perfected
two sudden deaths, one a suicide. This new forms of spectacular theater. Indeed,
unexpectedly violent turn in an otherwise one of Pirandello’s last pieces of metathe-
talkative and intellectual play corresponds ater set in a theater, Tonight We Improvise,
structurally to the fascist doctrine of contains a parody of Max Reinhardt as a
action: talking is what democracy prac- director disrespectful of the playwright and
tices in parliament and it must be ended interested only in creating spectacles.
by pure and bloody acts. It is as if Piran- It was during his own work as director
dello felt that his verbose and witty plays and producer that Pirandello in 1925 met
likewise needed to be concluded with the young actress Marta Abba, whom he
bloodshed so that mere talking could stop fell in love with and continued to adore for
and real action could start. the rest of his life. It was for her that he
In addition to Pirandello’s genuine wrote his final plays, all of which feature
attraction to fascism, there was also a strong female protagonists, such as the
mercenary element to his relationship with utopian The New Colony (1928) or his last
Mussolini—he hoped that the fascist leader play, The Mountain Giants (1937), a meta-
would establish a national theater and place theatrical work that features a group of
him in charge of it. After his success with actors and magicians living in a remote
Six Characters, which received multiple mountain region. After a tumultuous life
stagings by Europe’s most innovative direc- of personal tragedy, political entangle-
tors, Pirandello founded a theater of his ment, and artistic fame, Pirandello ended
own, the Teatro d’Arte. Although Musso- with a eulogy to the art that he had first
lini never gave sufficient funds to satisfy rejected but that turned out to be his call-
Pirandello’s ambitious plans for a national ing: the theater. m.p.

Six Characters in Search

1
of an Author
C H A R A C T E R S O F T H E P L AY- I N - T H E - M A K I N G

The father The boy, 14

The mother The little girl, 4
The son, aged 22 (these two last do not speak)
The stepdaughter, 18 Then, called into being:
madam pace

1. Translated by Eric Bentley.

950 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [1–10]

A C T O R S I N T H E C O M PA N Y

The director stage manager

(direttore-capocomico)2 prompter
leading lady property man
leading man technician
second actress Director’s secretary
ingenue stage door man
juvenile lead stage crew
Other actors and actresses

the place: The stage of a playhouse.3

When the audience arrives in the theater, the curtain is raised; and the stage, as
normally in the daytime, is without wings or scenery and almost completely
dark and empty. From the beginning we are to receive the impression of an
unrehearsed performance.
Two stairways, left and right respectively, connect the stage with the auditorium.
Onstage the dome of the prompter’s box4 has been placed on one side of the box
itself. On the other side, at the front of the stage, a small table and an armchair
with its back to the audience, for the direttore-capocomico [director].
Two other small tables of different sizes with several chairs around them have
also been placed at the front of the stage, ready as needed for the rehearsal.
Other chairs here and there, left and right, for the actors, and at the back, a
piano, on one side and almost hidden.
As soon as the houselights dim, the technician is seen entering at the door
onstage. He is wearing a blue shirt, and a tool bag hangs from his belt. From a cor-
ner at the back he takes several stage braces,5 then arranges them on the floor down-
stage, and kneels down to hammer some nails in. At the sound of the hammering,
the stage manager comes running from the door that leads to the dressing rooms.
stage manager Oh! What are you doing?
technician What am I doing? Hammering.
stage manager At this hour? [He looks at the clock.] It’s ten-thirty already.
The Director will be here any moment. For the rehearsal.
5 technician I gotta have time to work, too, see.
stage manager You will have. But not now.
technician When?
stage manager Not during rehearsal hours. Now move along, take all this
stuff away, and let me set the stage for the second act of, um, The Game of
10 Role Playing.6

2. Pirandello here combines the modern the Technician lets the curtain down by mis-
20th-century role of director (direttore in Ital- take [Pirandello’s note].
ian) with the older position of actor-manager 4. A box in the apron or on the side of a stage,
(or “chief actor,” capocomico in Italian), who opening toward the actors, that houses some-
fulfilled the function of supervising a theatri- one with a script (sitting below the stage) who
cal production. is ready to prompt the actors when they forget
3. The play has neither acts nor scenes. The their lines.
performance should be interrupted twice; 5. Braces used to support a stage set from
first—without any lowering of the curtain— behind.
when the Director and the chief among the 6. Il Gioco delle Parti (1918), a stage adapta-
Characters retire to put the scenario together tion of Pirandello’s own novella.
and the Actors leave the stage; second when
 [11–29] S I X C H A R AC T E R S I N S E A RC H O F A N AU T H O R | 95 1

[Muttering, grumbling, the technician picks up the stage braces and

goes away. Meanwhile, from the door onstage, the actors of the com-
pany start coming in, both men and women, one at a time at first, then in
twos, at random, nine or ten of them, the number one would expect as
the cast in rehearsals of Pirandello’s play “The Game of Role Playing,”
which is the order of the day. They enter, greet the stage manager and
each other, all saying good-morning to all. Several go to their dressing
rooms. Others, among them the prompter, who has a copy of the script
rolled up under his arm, stay onstage, waiting for the director to begin
the rehearsal. Meanwhile, either seated in conversational groups, or
standing, they exchange a few words among themselves. One lights a ciga-
rette, one complains about the part he has been assigned, one reads aloud
to his companions items of news from a theater journal. It would be well
if both the Actresses and the Actors wore rather gay and brightly colored
clothes and if this first improvised scene [scena a soggetto] combined
vivacity with naturalness. At a certain point, one of the actors can sit
down at the piano and strike up a dance tune. The younger actors and
actresses start dancing.]
stage manager [clapping his hands to call them to order] All right, that’s
enough of that. The Director’s here.
[The noise and the dancing stop at once. The Actors turn and look
toward the auditorium from the door of which the director is now seen
coming. A bowler bat on his head, a walking stick under his arm, and a
big cigar in his mouth, he walks down the aisle and, greeted by the
Actors, goes onstage by one of the two stairways. The secretary hands
him his mail: several newspapers and a script in a wrapper.]
director Letters?
secretary None. That’s all the mail there is.
15 director [handing him the script] Take this to my room. [Then, looking
around and addressing himself to the stage manager] We can’t see each
other in here. Want to give us a little light?
stage manager OK.
[He goes to give the order, and shortly afterward, the whole left side of the
stage where the Actors are is lit by a vivid white light. Meanwhile, the
prompter has taken up his position in his box. He uses a small lamp and
has the script open in front of him.]
director [clapping his hands] Very well, let’s start. [To the stage manager]
20 Someone missing?
stage manager The Leading Lady.
director As usual! [He looks at the clock.] We’re ten minutes late already.
Fine her for that, would you, please? Then she’ll learn to be on time.
[He has not completed his rebuke when the voice of the leading lady is
heard from the back of the auditorium.]
leading lady No, no, for heaven’s sake! I’m here! I’m here! [She is dressed
all in white with a big, impudent hat on her head and a cute little dog in her
arms. She runs down the aisle and climbs one of the sets of stairs in great
haste.]
25 director You’ve sworn an oath always to keep people waiting.
leading lady You must excuse me. Just couldn’t find a taxi. But you haven’t
even begun, I see. And I’m not on right away. [Then, calling the stage man-
ager by name, and handing the little dog over to him] Would you please
shut him in my dressing room?
9 52 | L U I G I P I R A N D E L L O [30–72]

30 director [grumbling] And the little dog to boot! As if there weren’t enough
dogs around here. [He claps his hands again and turns to the prompter.]
Now then, the second act of The Game of Role Playing. [As he sits down in
his armchair] Quiet, gentlemen. Who’s onstage?
[The Actresses and Actors clear the front of the stage and go and sit on
one side, except for the three who will start the rehearsal and the lead-
ing lady who, disregarding the director’s request, sits herself down at
one of the two small tables.]
director [to the leading lady] You’re in this scene, are you?
35 leading lady Me? No, no.
director [irritated] Then how about getting up, for Heaven’s sake?
[The leading lady rises and goes and sits beside the other Actors who
have already gone to one side.]
director [to the prompter] Start, start.
prompter [reading from the script] “In the house of Leone Gala. A strange
room, combined study and dining room.”
40 director [turning to the stage manager] We’ll use the red room.
stage manager [making a note on a piece of paper] Red room. Very good.
prompter [continuing to read from the script] “The table is set and the desk
has books and papers on it. Shelves with books on them, and cupboards
with lavish tableware. Door in the rear through which one goes to Leone’s
45 bedroom. Side door on the left through which one goes to the kitchen. The
main entrance is on the right.”
director [rising and pointing] All right, now listen carefully. That’s the main
door. This is the way to the kitchen. [Addressing himself to the Actor playing
the part of Socrates] You will come on and go out on this side. [To the stage
50 manager] The compass at the back. And curtains. [He sits down again.]
stage manager [making a note] Very good.
prompter [reading as before] “Scene One. Leone Gala, Guido Venanzi,
Filippo called Socrates.” [To the director] Am I supposed to read the stage
directions, too?
55 director Yes, yes, yes! I’ve told you that a hundred times!
prompter [reading as before] “At the rise of the curtain, Leone Gala, wear-
ing a chef ’s hat and apron, is intent on beating an egg in a saucepan with a
wooden spoon. Filippo, also dressed as a cook, is beating another egg.
Guido Venanzi, seated, is listening.”
60 leading actor [to the director] Excuse me, but do I really have to wear a
chef ’s hat?
director [annoyed by this observation] I should say so! It’s in the script.
[And he points at it.]
leading actor But it’s ridiculous, if I may say so.
director [leaping to his feet, furious] “Ridiculous, ridiculous!” What do you
65 want me to do? We never get a good play from France any more, so we’re
reduced to producing plays by Pirandello, a fine man and all that, but nei-
ther the actors, the critics, nor the audience are ever happy with his plays,
and if you ask me, he does it all on purpose. [The Actors laugh. And now he
rises and coming over to the leading actor shouts.] A cook’s hat, yes, my
70 dear man! And you beat eggs. And you think you have nothing more on
your hands than the beating of eggs? Guess again. You symbolize the shell
of those eggs. [The Actors resume their laughing, and start making ironical
 [73–87] S I X C H A R AC T E R S I N S E A RC H O F A N AUT H O R | 953

comments among themselves.] Silence! And pay attention while I explain.

[Again addressing himself to the leading actor] Yes, the shell: that is to say,
75 the empty form of reason without the content of instinct, which is blind.
You are reason, and your wife is instinct in the game of role playing. You
play the part assigned you, and you’re your own puppet—of your own free
will. Understand?
leading actor [extending his arms, palms upward] Me? No.
80 director [returning to his place] Nor do I. Let’s go on. Wait and see what I
do with the ending. [In a confidential tone] I suggest you face three-
quarters front. Otherwise, what with the abstruseness of the dialogue, and
an audience that can’t hear you, good-bye play! [Again clapping] Now,
again, order! Let’s go.
85 prompter Excuse me, sir, may I put the top back on the prompter’s box?
There’s rather a draft.
director Yes, yes, do that.
[The stage door man has entered the auditorium in the meanwhile, his
braided cap on his head. Proceeding down the aisle, he goes up onstage
to announce to the director the arrival of the Six Characters, who have
also entered the auditorium, and have started following him at a certain
distance, a little lost and perplexed, looking around them.
Whoever is going to try and translate this play into scenic terms must
take all possible measures not to let these Six Characters get confused
with the Actors of the Company. Placing both groups correctly, in accor-
dance with the stage directions, once the Six are onstage, will certainly
help, as will lighting the two groups in contrasting colors. But the most
suitable and effective means to be suggested here is the use of special
masks for the Characters: masks specially made of material which doesn’t
go limp when sweaty and yet masks which are not too heavy for the Actors
wearing them, cut out and worked over so they leave eyes, nostrils, and
mouth free. This will also bring out the inner significance of the play. The
Characters in fact should not be presented as ghosts but as created reali-
ties, unchanging constructs of the imagination, and therefore more solidly
real than the Actors with their fluid naturalness. The masks will help to
give the impression of figures constructed by art, each one unchangeably
fixed in the expression of its own fundamental sentiment, thus:
remorse in the case of the father; revenge in the case of the step-
daughter; disdain in the case of the son; grief in the case of the
mother, who should have wax tears fixed in the rings under her eyes and
on her cheeks, as with the sculpted and painted images of the mater dolo-
rosa7 in church. Their clothes should be of special material and design,
without extravagance, with rigid, full folds like a statue, in short not sug-
gesting a material you might buy at any store in town, cut out and tai-
lored at any dressmaker’s.
The father is a man of about fifty, hair thin at the temples, but not
bald, thick mustache coiled round a still youthful mouth that is often open
in an uncertain, pointless smile. Pale, most notably on his broad forehead:
blue eyes, oval, very clear and piercing; dark jacket and light trousers: at
times gentle and smooth, at times he has hard, harsh outbursts.
The mother seems scared and crushed by an intolerable weight of
shame and self-abasement. Wearing a thick black crepe widow’s veil, she

7. Grieving mother (Latin); specifically, Mary, mother of Jesus, grieving over the body of her dead
son.
954 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [88–117]

is modestly dressed in black, and when she lifts the veil, the face does not
show signs of suffering, and yet seems made of wax. Her eyes are always
on the ground.
The stepdaughter, eighteen, is impudent, almost insolent. Very
beautiful, and also in mourning, but mourning of a showy elegance. She
shows contempt for the timid, afflicted, almost humiliated manner of her
little brother, rather a mess of a box, fourteen, also dressed in black, but
a lively tenderness for her little sister, a little girl of around four,
dressed in white with a black silk sash round her waist.
The son, twenty-two, tall, almost rigid with contained disdain for the
father and supercilious indifference toward the mother, wears a mauve
topcoat and a long green scarf wound round his neck.]
stage door man [beret in hand] Excuse me, your honor.
director [rudely jumping on him] What is it now?
90 stage door man [timidly] There are some people here asking for you.
[The director and the Actors turn in astonishment to look down into
the auditorium.]
director [furious again] But I’m rehearsing here! And you know perfectly
well no one can come in during rehearsal! [Turning again toward the house]
Who are these people? What do they want?
the father [stepping forward, followed by the others, to one of the two little
stairways to the stage] We’re here in search of an author.
95 director [half angry, half astounded] An author? What author?
father Any author, sir.
director There’s no author here at all. It’s not a new play we’re rehearsing.
stepdaughter [very vivaciously as she rushes up the stairs] Then so much
the better, sir! We can be your new play!
100 one of the actors [among the racy comments and laughs of the others] Did
you hear that?
father [following the stepdaughter onstage] Certainly, but if the author’s
not here . . . [To the director] Unless you’d like to be the author?
[The mother, holding the little girl by the hand, and the boy climb
the first steps of the stairway and remain there waiting. The son stays
morosely below.]
director Is this your idea of a joke?
105 father Heavens, no! Oh, sir, on the contrary: we bring you a painful drama.
stepdaughter We can make your fortune for you.
director Do me a favor, and leave. We have no time to waste on madmen.
father [wounded, smoothly] Oh, sir, you surely know that life is full of infi-
nite absurdities which, brazenly enough, do not need to appear probable,
110 because they’re true.
director What in God’s name are you saying?
father I’m saying it can actually be considered madness, sir, to force one-
self to do the opposite: that is, to give probability to things so they will
seem true. But permit me to observe that, if this is madness, it is also the
115 raison d’être of your profession.
[The Actors become agitated and indignant.]
director [rising and looking him over] It is, is it? It seems to you an affair
for madmen, our profession?
 [1 18–151] S I X C H A R AC T E R S I N S E A RC H O F A N AUT H O R | 955

father Well, to make something seem true which is not true . . . without
any need, sir: just for fun . . . Isn’t it your job to give life onstage to crea-
120 tures of fantasy?
director [immediately, making himself spokesman for the growing indignation
of his Actors] Let me tell you something, my good sir. The actor’s profes-
sion is a very noble one. If, as things go nowadays, our new playwrights give
us nothing but stupid plays, with puppets in them instead of men, it is our
boast, I’d have you know, to have given life—on these very boards—to
125 immortal works of art.
[Satisfied, the Actors approve and applaud their director.]
father [interrupting and bearing down hard] Exactly! That’s just it. You
have created living beings—more alive than those that breathe and wear
clothes! Less real, perhaps; but more true! We agree completely!
[The Actors look at each other, astounded.]
director What? You were saying just now . . .
130 father No, no, don’t misunderstand me. You shouted that you hadn’t time
to waste on madmen. So I wanted to tell you that no one knows better than
you that Nature employs the human imagination to carry her work of cre-
ation on to a higher plane!
director All right, all right. But what are you getting at, exactly?
135 father Nothing, sir. I only wanted to show that one may be born to this life
in many modes, in many forms: as tree, as rock, water or butterfly . . . or
woman. And that . . . characters are born too.
director [his amazement ironically feigned] And you—with these compan-
ions of yours—were born a character?
140 father Right, sir. And alive, as you see.
[The director and the Actors burst out laughing as at a joke.]
father [wounded] I’m sorry to hear you laugh, because, I repeat, we carry a
painful drama within us, as you all might deduce from the sight of that lady
there, veiled in black.
[As he says this, he gives his hand to the mother to help her up the last
steps and, still holding her by the hand, he leads her with a certain tragic
solemnity to the other side of the stage, which is suddenly bathed in fan-
tastic light. The little girl and the boy follow the mother; then the
son, who stands on one side at the back; then the stepdaughter who
also detaches herself from the others—downstage and leaning against the
proscenium arch. At first astonished at this development, then overcome
with admiration, the Actors now burst into applause as at a show per-
formed for their benefit.]
director [bowled over at first, then indignant] Oh, stop this! Silence please!
145 [Then, turning to the Characters] And you, leave! Get out of here! [To the
stage manager] For God’s sake, get them out!
stage manager [stepping forward but then stopping, as if held back by a
strange dismay] Go! Go!
father [to the director] No, look, we, um—
director [shouting] I tell you we’ve got to work!
150 leading man It’s not right to fool around like this . . .
father [resolute, stepping forward] I’m amazed at your incredulity! You’re
accustomed to seeing the created characters of an author spring to life,
95 6 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [ 1 52 – 1 9 2 ]

aren’t you, right here on this stage, the one confronting the other? Perhaps
the trouble is there’s no script there [Pointing to the prompter’s box] with
us in it?
155 stepdaughter [going right up to the director, smiling, coquettish] Believe
me, we really are six characters, sir. Very interesting ones at that. But lost.
Adrift.
father [brushing her aside] Very well: lost, adrift. [Going right on] In the
sense, that is, that the author who created us, made us live, did not wish,
160 or simply and materially was not able, to place us in the world of art. And
that was a real crime, sir, because whoever has the luck to be born a living
character can also laugh at death. He will never die! The man will die, the
writer, the instrument of creation; the creature will never die! And to have
eternal life it doesn’t even take extraordinary gifts, nor the performance of
165 miracles. Who was Sancho Panza? Who was Don Abbondio?8 But they live
forever because, as live germs, they have the luck to find a fertile matrix, an
imagination which knew how to raise and nourish them, make them live
through all eternity!
director That’s all well and good. But what do you people want here?
170 father We want to live, sir.
director [ironically] Through all eternity?
father No, sir. But for a moment at least. In you.
an actor Well, well, well!
leading lady They want to live in us.
175 juvenile lead [pointing to the stepdaughter] Well, I’ve no objection, so
long as I get that one.
father Now look, look. The play is still in the making. [To the director]
But if you wish, and your actors wish, we can make it right away. Acting in
concert.
180 leading man [annoyed] Concert? We don’t put on concerts! We do plays,
dramas, comedies!
father Very good. That’s why we came.
director Well, where’s the script?
father Inside us, sir. [The Actors laugh.] The drama is inside us. It is us.
185 And we’re impatient to perform it. According to the dictates of the passion
within us.
stepdaughter [scornful, with treacherous grace, deliberate impudence] My
passion—if you only knew, sir! My passion—for him! [She points to the
father and makes as if to embrace him but then breaks into a strident
laugh.]
father [an angry interjection] You keep out of this now. And please don’t
190 laugh that way!
stepdaughter No? Then, ladies and gentlemen, permit me. A two months’
orphan, I shall dance and sing for you all. Watch how! [She mischievously
starts to sing “Beware of Chu Chin Chow” by Dave Stamper, reduced to fox-
trot or slow one-step by Francis Salabert:9 the first verse, accompanied by a
8. A rural priest in Alessandro Manzoni’s his company released numerous recordings of
novel I Promessi sposi (The Betrothed, 1825– dance music in the 1920s and 1930s. “Beware
27). Sancho Panza: the servant and compan- of Chu Chin Chow” (1917), with music by
ion of the title character in Miguel de Dave Stamper (1883–1963) and words by
Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote (1605, 1615). Gene Buck and Charles Wilmott, was a popu-
9. A French music publisher (1884–1946); lar novelty song.
 [193–226] S I X C H A R AC T E R S I N S E A RC H O F A N AUT H O R | 95 7

step or two of dancing. While she sings and dances, the Actors, especially the
young ones, as if drawn by some strange fascination, move toward her and
half raise their hands as if to take hold of her. She runs away and when the
Actors burst into applause she just stands there, remote, abstracted, while the
director protests.]
actors and actresses [laughing and clapping] Brava!1 Fine! Splendid!
director [annoyed] Silence! What do you think this is, a night spot? [Tak-
ing the father a step or two to one side, with a certain amount of consterna-
195 tion] Tell me something. Is she crazy?
father Crazy? Of course not. It’s much worse than that.
stepdaughter [running over at once to the director] Worse! Worse! Not
crazy but worse! Just listen: I’ll play it for you right now, this drama, and at
a certain point you’ll see me—when this dear little thing—[She takes the
little girl who is beside the mother by the hand and leads her to the
200 director.]—isn’t she darling? [Takes her in her arms and kisses her.]
Sweetie! Sweetie! [Puts her down again and adds with almost involuntary
emotion.] Well, when God suddenly takes this little sweetheart away from
her poor mother, and that idiot there—[Thrusting the boy forward, rudely
seizing him by a sleeve] does the stupidest of things, like the nitwit that he
205 is, [With a shove she drives him back toward the mother] then you will see
me take to my heels. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, take to my heels! I can
hardly wait for that moment. For after what happened between him and
me—[She points to the father with a horrible wink.] something very inti-
mate, you understand—I can’t stay in such company any longer, witnessing
210 the anguish of our mother on account of that fool there—[She points to the
son.] Just look at him, look at him!—how indifferent, how frozen, because
he is the legitimate son, that’s what he is, full of contempt for me, for him
[the boy], and for that little creature [the little girl], because we three
are bastards, d’you see? Bastards. [Goes to the mother and embraces her.]
215 And this poor mother, the common mother of us all, he—well, he doesn’t
want to acknowledge her as his mother too, and he looks down on her,
that’s what he does, looks on her as only the mother of us three bastards,
the wretch! [She says this rapidly in a state of extreme excitement. Her voice
swells to the word: “bastards!” and descends again to the final “wretch,”
almost spitting it out.]
mother [to the director, with infinite anguish] In the name of these two
220 small children, sir, I implore you . . . [She grows faint and sways.] Oh,
heavens . . .
father [rushing over to support her with almost all the Actors, who are aston-
ished and scared] Please! Please, a chair, a chair for this poor widow!
actors [rushing over] —Is it true then?—She’s really fainting?
director A chair!
[One of the Actors proffers a chair. The others stand around, ready to
help. The mother, seated, tries to stop the father from lifting the veil
that hides her face.]
225 father [to the director] Look at her, look at her . . .
mother Heavens, no, stop it!

1. An Italian exclamation of approval, used when applauding a woman (as bravo is used of a
man).
958 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [227–272]

father Let them see you. [He lifts her veil.]

mother [rising and covering her face with her hands, desperate] Oh, sir,
please stop this man from carrying out his plan. It’s horrible for me!
230 director [surprised, stunned] I don’t know where we’re at! What’s this all
about? [To the father] Is this your wife?
father [at once] Yes, sir, my wife.
director Then how is she a widow, if you’re alive?
[The Actors relieve their astonishment in a loud burst of laughter.]
father [wounded, with bitter resentment] Don’t laugh! Don’t laugh like
235 that! Please! Just that is her drama, sir. She had another man. Another man
who should be here!
mother [with a shout] No! No!
stepdaughter He had the good luck to die. Two months ago, as I told you.
We’re still in mourning as you see.
240 father But he’s absent, you see, not just because he’s dead. He’s absent—
take a look at her, sir, and you will understand at once!—Her drama wasn’t
in the love of two men for whom she was incapable of feeling anything—
except maybe a little gratitude [not to me, but to him]—She is not a woman,
she is a mother!—And her drama—a powerful one, very powerful—is in
245 fact all in those four children which she bore to her two men.
mother My men? Have you the gall to say I wanted two men? It was him,
sir. He forced the other man on me. Compelled—yes, compelled—me to go
off with him!
stepdaughter [cutting in, roused] It’s not true!
250 mother [astounded] How d’you mean, not true?
stepdaughter It’s not true! It’s not true!
mother And what can you know about it?
stepdaughter It’s not true. [To the director] Don’t believe it. Know why
she says it? For his sake. [Pointing to the son] His indifference tortures her,
255 destroys her. She wants him to believe that, if she abandoned him when he
was two, it was because he [the father] compelled her to.
mother [with violence] He did compel me, he did compel me, as God is my
witness! [To the director] Ask him if that isn’t true. [Her husband] Make
him tell him. [The son] She couldn’t know anything about it.
260 stepdaughter With my father, while he lived, I know you were always
happy and content. Deny it if you can.
mother I don’t deny it, I don’t . . .
stepdaughter He loved you, he cared for you! [To the boy, with rage] Isn’t
that so? Say it! Why don’t you speak, you dope?
265 mother Leave the poor boy alone. Why d’you want to make me out ungrate-
ful, daughter? I have no wish to offend your father! I told him [the father]
I didn’t abandon my son and my home for my own pleasure. It wasn’t my
fault.
father That’s true, sir. It was mine.
[Pause.]
270 leading man [to his companions] What a show!
leading lady And they put it on—for us.
juvenile lead Quite a change!
 [273–314] S I X C H A R A C T E R S I N S E A R C H O F A N A U T H O R | 9 59

director [who is now beginning to get very interested] Let’s listen to this,
let’s listen! [And saying this, he goes down one of the stairways into the audi-
torium, and stands in front of the stage, as if to receive a spectator’s impres-
sion of the show.]
275 son [without moving from his position, cold, quiet, ironic] Oh yes, you can
now listen to the philosophy lecture. He will tell you about the Demon of
Experiment.
father You are a cynical idiot, as I’ve told you a hundred times. [To the
director, now in the auditorium] He mocks me, sir, on account of that
280 phrase I found to excuse myself with.
son [contemptuously] Phrases!
father Phrases! Phrases! As if they were not a comfort to everyone: in the
face of some unexplained fact, in the face of an evil that eats into us, to
find a word that says nothing but at least quiets us down!
285 stepdaughter Quiets our guilt feelings too. That above all.
father Our guilt feelings? Not so. I have never quieted my guilt feelings
with words alone.
stepdaughter It took a little money as well, didn’t it, it took a little dough!
The hundred lire2 he was going to pay me, ladies and gentlemen!
[Movement of horror among the Actors.]
290 son [with contempt toward the stepdaughter] That’s filthy.
stepdaughter Filthy? The dough was there. In a small pale blue envelope
on the mahogany table in the room behind the shop. Madam Pace’s [she
pronounces it “Pah-chay”] shop. One of those Madams who lure us poor
girls from good families into their ateliers under the pretext of selling Robes
295 et Manteaux.3
son And with those hundred lire he was going to pay she has bought the
right to tyrannize over us all. Only it so happens—I’d have you know—that
he never actually incurred the debt.
stepdaughter Oh, oh, but we were really going to it, I assure you! [She
bursts out laughing.]
300 mother [rising in protest] Shame, daughter! Shame!
stepdaughter [quickly] Shame? It’s my revenge! I am frantic, sir, frantic to
live it, live that scene! The room . . . here’s the shop window with the coats
in it; there’s the bed-sofa; the mirror; a screen; and in front of the window
the little mahogany table with the hundred lire in the pale blue envelope. I
305 can see it. I could take it. But you men should turn away now: I’m almost
naked. I don’t blush anymore. It’s he that blushes now. [Points to the
father.] But I assure you he was very pale, very pale, at that moment. [To
the director] You must believe me, sir.
director You lost me some time ago.
310 father Of course! Getting it thrown at you like that! Restore a little order,
sir, and let me speak. And never mind this ferocious girl. She’s trying to
heap opprobrium on me by withholding the relevant explanations!
stepdaughter This is no place for long-winded narratives!
father I said—explanations.

2. Equivalent to about $50 today.

3. Dressing gowns and coats (French). Ateliers: workshops (French).
960 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [315–357]

315 stepdaughter Oh, certainly. Those that suit your turn.

[At this point, the director returns to the stage to restore order.]
father But that’s the whole root of the evil. Words. Each of us has, inside
him, a world of things—to everyone, his world of things. And how can we
understand each other, sir, if, in the words I speak, I put the sense and value
of things as they are inside me, whereas the man who hears them inevitably
320 receives them in the sense and with the value they have for him, the sense
and value of the world inside him? We think we understand each other but
we never do. Consider: the compassion, all the compassion I feel for this
woman [the mother] has been received by her as the most ferocious of
cruelties!
325 mother You ran me out of the house.
father Hear that? Ran her out. It seemed to her that I ran her out.
mother You can talk; I can’t . . . But, look, sir, after he married me . . . and
who knows why he did? I was poor, of humble birth . . .
father And that’s why I married you for your . . . humility. I loved you for
330 it, believing . . . [He breaks off, seeing her gestured denials; seeing the impos-
sibility of making himself understood by her, he opens his arms wide in a
gesture of despair, and turns to the director.] See that? She says No. It’s
scarifying, isn’t it, sir, scarifying, this deafness of hers, this mental deaf-
ness! She has a heart, oh yes, where her children are concerned! But she’s
deaf, deaf in the brain, deaf, sir, to the point of desperation!
335 stepdaughter [to the director] All right, but now make him tell you what
his intelligence has ever done for us.
father If we could only foresee all the evil that can result from the good we
believe we’re doing!
[At this point, the leading lady, who has been on hot coals seeing the
leading man flirt with the stepdaughter, steps forward and asks of the
director:]
leading lady Excuse me, is the rehearsal continuing?
340 director Yes, of course! But let me listen a moment.
juvenile lead This is something quite new.
ingenue Very interesting!
leading lady If that sort of thing interests you. [And she darts a look at the
leading man.]
director [to the father] But you must give us clear explanations. [He goes
and sits down.]
345 father Right. Yes. Listen. There was a man working for me. A poor man. As
my secretary. Very devoted to me. Understood her [the mother] very well.
There was mutual understanding between them. Nothing wrong in it. They
thought no harm at all. Nothing off-color about it. No, no, he knew his
place, as she did. They didn’t do anything wrong. Didn’t even think it.
350 stepdaughter So he thought it for them. And did it.
father It’s not true! I wanted to do them some good. And myself too, oh
yes, I admit. I’d got to this point, sir: I couldn’t say a word to either of them
but they would exchange a significant look. The one would consult the eyes
of the other, asking how what I had said should be taken, if they didn’t
355 want to put me in a rage. That sufficed, you will understand, to keep me
continually in a rage, in a state of unbearable exasperation.
director Excuse me, why didn’t you fire him, this secretary?
 [ 3 58 – 4 0 3 ] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 961

father Good question! That’s what I did do, sir. But then I had to see that
poor woman remain in my house, a lost soul. Like an animal without a
360 master that one takes pity on and carries home.
mother No, no, it’s—
father [at once, turning to her to get it in first] Your son? Right?
mother He’d already snatched my son from me.
father But not from cruelty. Just so he’d grow up strong and healthy. In
365 touch with the soil.
stepdaughter [pointing at the latter, ironic] And just look at him!
father [at once] Uh? Is it also my fault if he then grew up this way? I sent
him to a wet nurse, sir, in the country, a peasant woman. I didn’t find her
[the mother] strong enough, despite her humble origin. I’d married her for
370 similar reasons, as I said. All nonsense maybe, but there we are. I always
had these confounded aspirations toward a certain solidity, toward what is
morally sound. [Here the stepdaughter bursts out laughing.] Make her
stop that! It’s unbearable!
director Stop it. I can’t hear, for Heaven’s sake!
[Suddenly, again, as the director rebukes her, she is withdrawn and
remote, her laughter cut off in the middle. The director goes down
again from the stage to get an impression of the scene.]
375 father I couldn’t bear to be with that woman anymore. [Points to the
mother] Not so much, believe me, because she irritated me, and even
made me feel physically ill, as because of the pain—a veritable anguish—
that I felt on her account.
mother And he sent me away!
380 father. Well provided for. And to that man. Yes, sir. So she could be free of
me.
mother And so he could be free.
father That, too. I admit it. And much evil resulted. But I intended good.
And more for her than for me, I swear it! [He folds his arms across his chest.
385 Then, suddenly, turning to the mother] I never lost sight of you, never lost
sight of you till, from one day to the next, unbeknown to me, he carried you
off to another town. He noticed I was interested in her, you see, but that
was silly, because my interest was absolutely pure, absolutely without ulte-
rior motive. The interest I took in her new family, as it grew up, had an
390 unbelievable tenderness to it. Even she should bear witness to that! [He
points to the stepdaughter.]
stepdaughter Oh, very much so! I was a little sweetie. Pigtails over my
shoulders. Panties coming down a little bit below my skirt. A little sweetie.
He would see me coming out of school, at the gate. He would come and
see me as I grew up . . .
395 father This is outrageous. You’re betraying me!
stepdaughter I’m not! What do you mean?
father Outrageous. Outrageous. [Immediately, still excited, he continues in
a tone of explanation, to the director.] My house, sir, when she had left it,
at once seemed empty. [Points to the mother.] She was an incubus. But she
400 filled my house for me. Left alone, I wandered through these rooms like a
fly without a head. This fellow here [the son] was raised away from home.
Somehow, when he got back, he didn’t seem mine anymore. Without a
mother between me and him, he grew up on his own, apart, without any
962 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [ 4 04 – 4 5 4 ]

relationship to me, emotional or intellectual. And then—strange, sir, but

405 true—first I grew curious, then I was gradually attracted toward her family,
which I had brought into being. The thought of this family began to fill the
void around me. I had to—really had to—believe she was at peace, absorbed
in the simplest cares of life, lucky to be away and far removed from the
complicated torments of my spirit. And to have proof of this, I would go
410 and see that little girl at the school gate.
stepdaughter Correct! He followed me home, smiled at me and, when I
was home, waved to me, like this! I would open my eyes wide and look at
him suspiciously. I didn’t know who it was. I told mother. And she guessed
right away it was him. [The mother nods.] At first she didn’t want to send
415 me back to school for several days. When I did go, I saw him again at the
gate—the clown!—with a brown paper bag in his hand. He came up to me,
caressed me, and took from the bag a lovely big Florentine straw hat with a
ring of little May roses round it—for me!
director You’re making too long a story of this.
420 son [contemptuously] Story is right! Fiction! Literature!
father Literature? This is life, sir. Passion!
director Maybe! But not actable!
father I agree. This is all preliminary. I wouldn’t want you to act it. As
you see, in fact, she [the stepdaughter] is no longer that little girl with
425 pigtails—
stepdaughter —and the panties showing below her skirt!
father The drama comes now, sir. Novel, complex—
stepdaughter [gloomy, fierce, steps forward] —What my father’s death
meant for us was—
430 father [not giving her time to continue] —poverty, sir. They returned, unbe-
knownst to me. She’s so thickheaded. [Pointing to the mother] It’s true she
can hardly write herself, but she could have had her daughter write, or her
son, telling me they were in need!
mother But, sir, how could I have guessed he felt the way he did?
435 father Which is just where you always went wrong. You could never guess
how I felt about anything!
mother After so many years of separation, with all that had happened . . .
father And is it my fault if that fellow carried you off as he did? [Turning to
the director] From one day to the next, as I say. He’d found some job
440 someplace. I couldn’t even trace them. Necessarily, then, my interest dwin-
dled, with the years. The drama breaks out, sir, unforeseen and violent, at
their return. When I, alas, was impelled by the misery of my still-living
flesh . . . Oh, and what misery that is for a man who is alone, who has not
wanted to form debasing relationships, not yet old enough to do without a
445 woman, and no longer young enough to go and look for one without
shame! Misery? It’s horror, horror, because no woman can give him love
anymore.—Knowing this, one should go without! Well, sir, on the outside,
when other people are watching, each man is clothed in dignity: but, on
the inside, he knows what unconfessable things are going on within him.
450 One gives way, gives way to temptation, to rise again, right afterward, of
course, in a great hurry to put our dignity together again, complete, solid, a
stone on a grave that hides and buries from our eyes every sign of our
shame and even the very memory of it! It’s like that with everybody. Only
the courage to say it is lacking—to say certain things.
 [455–503] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 963

455 stepdaughter The courage to do them, though—everybody’s got that.

father Everybody. But in secret. That’s why it takes more courage to say
them. A man only has to say them and it’s all over: he’s labeled a cynic. But,
sir, he isn’t! He’s just like everybody else. Better! He’s better because he’s
not afraid to reveal, by the light of intelligence, the red stain of shame,
460 there, in the human beast, which closes its eyes to it. Woman—yes,
woman—what is she like, actually? She looks at us, inviting, tantalizing.
You take hold of her. She’s no sooner in your arms than she shuts her eyes.
It is the sign of her submission. The sign with which she tells the man:
Blind yourself for I am blind.
465 stepdaughter How about when she no longer keeps them shut? When
she no longer feels the need to hide the red stain of shame from herself by
closing her eyes, and instead, her eyes now dry and impassive, sees the
shame of the man, who has blinded himself even without love? They make
me vomit, all those intellectual elaborations, this philosophy that begins
470 by revealing the beast and then goes on to excuse it and save its soul . . . I
can’t bear to hear about it! Because when a man feels obliged to reduce
life this way, reduce it all to “the beast,” throwing overboard every vestige
of the truly human, every aspiration after chastity, all feelings of purity, of
the ideal, of duties, of modesty, of shame, then nothing is more con-
475 temptible, more nauseating than his wretched guilt feelings! Crocodile
tears!
director Let’s get to the facts, to the facts! This is just discussion.
father Very well. But a fact is like a sack. When it’s empty, it won’t stand
up. To make it stand up you must first pour into it the reasons and feelings
480 by which it exists. I couldn’t know that—when that man died and they
returned here in poverty—she went out to work as a dressmaker to support
the children, nor that the person she went to work for was that . . . that
Madam Pace!
stepdaughter A high-class dressmaker, if you’d all like to know! To all
485 appearances, she serves fine ladies, but then she arranges things so that
the fine ladies serve her . . . without prejudice to ladies not so fine!
mother Believe me, sir, I never had the slightest suspicion that that old
witch hired me because she had her eye on my daughter . . .
stepdaughter Poor mama! Do you know, sir, what the woman did when I
490 brought her my mother’s work? She would point out to me the material
she’d ruined by giving it to my mother to sew. And she deducted for that,
she deducted. And so, you understand, I paid, while that poor creature
thought she was making sacrifices for me and those two by sewing, even at
night, Madam Pace’s material!
[Indignant movements and exclamations from the Actors.]
495 director [without pause] And there, one day, you met—
stepdaughter [pointing to the father] —him, him, yes sir! An old client!
Now there’s a scene for you to put on! Superb!
father Interrupted by her—the mother—
stepdaughter [without pause, treacherously] —almost in time!—
500 father [shouting] No, no, in time! Because, luckily, I recognized the girl in
time. And I took them all back, sir, into my home. Now try to visualize my
situation and hers, the one confronting the other—she as you see her now,
myself unable to look her in the face anymore.
964 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [ 5 04 – 5 52 ]

stepdaughter It’s too absurd! But—afterward—was it possible for me to be

505 a modest little miss, virtuous and well-bred, in accordance with those con-
founded aspirations toward a certain solidity, toward what is morally sound?
father And therein lies the drama, sir, as far as I’m concerned: in my aware-
ness that each of us thinks of himself as one but that, well, it’s not true,
each of us is many, oh so many, sir, according to the possibilities of being
510 that are in us. We are one thing for this person, another for that! Already
two utterly different things! And with it all, the illusion of being always one
thing for all men, and always this one thing in every single action. It’s not
true! Not true! We realize as much when, by some unfortunate chance, in
one or another of our acts, we find ourselves suspended, hooked. We see, I
515 mean, that we are not wholly in that act, and that therefore it would be
abominably unjust to judge us by that act alone, to hold us suspended,
hooked, in the pillory, our whole life long, as if our life were summed up in
that act! Now do you understand this girl’s treachery? She surprised me in
a place, in an act, in which she should never have had to know me—I
520 couldn’t be that way for her. And she wants to give me a reality such as I
could never had expected I would have to assume for her, the reality of a
fleeting moment, a shameful one, in my life! This, sir, this is what I feel
most strongly. And you will see that the drama will derive tremendous value
from this. But now add the situation of the others! His . . . [He points to the
son.]
525 son [shrugging contemptuously] Leave me out of this! It’s none of my
business.
father What? None of your business?
son None. And I want to be left out. I wasn’t made to be one of you, and
you know it.
530 stepdaughter We’re common, aren’t we?—And he’s so refined.—But from
time to time I give him a hard, contemptuous look, and he looks down at
the ground. You may have noticed that, sir. He looks down at the ground.
For he knows the wrong he’s done me.
son [hardly looking at her] Me?
535 stepdaughter You! You! I’m on the streets because of you! [A movement of
horror from the Actors] Did you or did you not, by your attitude, deny us—I
won’t say the intimacy of home but even the hospitality which puts guests
at their ease? We were the intruders, coming to invade the kingdom of your
legitimacy! I’d like to have you see, sir, certain little scenes between just
540 him and me! He says I tyrannized over them all. But it was entirely because
of his attitude that I started to exploit the situation he calls filthy, a situa-
tion which had brought me into his home with my mother, who is also his
mother, as its mistress!
son [coming slowly forward] They can’t lose, sir, three against one, an easy
545 game. But figure to yourself a son, sitting quietly at home, who one fine
day sees a young woman arrive, an impudent type with her nose in the air,
asking for his father, with whom she has heaven knows what business; and
then he sees her return, in the same style, accompanied by that little girl
over there; and finally he sees her treat his father—who can say why?—in
550 a very ambiguous and cool manner, demanding money, in a tone that takes
for granted that he has to give it, has to, is obligated—
father —but I am obligated: it’s for your mother!
 [553–602] S I X C H A R AC T E R S I N S E A R C H O F A N AU T H O R | 965

son How would I know? When, sir, [To the director] have I ever seen her?
When have I ever heard her spoken of? One day I see her arrive with her
555 [the stepdaughter], with that boy, with that little girl. They say to me: “It’s
your mother too, know that?” I manage to figure out from her carryings-on
[Pointing at the stepdaughter] why they arrived in our home from one day
to the next . . . What I’m feeling and experiencing I can’t put into words,
and wouldn’t want to. I wouldn’t want to confess it, even to myself. It can-
560 not therefore result in any action on my part. You can see that. Believe me,
sir, I’m a character that, dramatically speaking, remains unrealized. I’m out
of place in their company. So please leave me out of it all!
father What? But it’s just because you’re so—
son [in violent exasperation] —I’m so what? How would you know? When
565 did you ever care about me?
father Touché! Touché! But isn’t even that a dramatic situation? This with-
drawnness of yours, so cruel to me, and to your mother who, on her return
home is seeing you almost for the first time, a grown man she doesn’t rec-
ognize, though she knows you’re her son . . . [Pointing out the mother to
570 the director] Just look at her, she’s crying.
stepdaughter [angrily, stamping her foot] Like the fool she is!
father [pointing her out to the director] And she can’t abide him, you
know. [Again referring to the son]—He says it’s none of his business. The
truth is he’s almost the pivot of the action. Look at that little boy, clinging
575 to his mother all the time, scared, humiliated . . . It’s all because of him
[the son]. Perhaps the most painful situation of all is that little boy’s: he
feels alien, more than all the others, and the poor little thing is so morti-
fied, so anguished at being taken into our home—out of charity, as it
were . . . [Confidentially] He’s just like his father: humble, doesn’t say
580 anything . . .
director He won’t fit anyway. You’ve no idea what a nuisance children are
onstage.
father But he wouldn’t be a nuisance for long. Nor would the little girl, no,
she’s the first to go . . .
585 director Very good, yes! The whole thing interests me very much indeed. I
have a hunch, a definite hunch, that there’s material here for a fine play!
stepdaughter [trying to inject herself] With a character like me in it!
father [pushing her to one side in his anxiety to know what the director will
decide] You be quiet!
590 director [going right on, ignoring the interruption] Yes, it’s new stuff . . .
father Very new!
director You had some gall, though, to come and throw it at me this
way . . .
father Well, you see, sir, born as we are to the stage . . .
595 director You’re amateurs, are you?
father No. I say: “born to the stage” because . . .
director Oh, come on, you must have done some acting!
father No, no, sir, only as every man acts the part assigned to him—by
himself or others—in this life. In me you see passion itself, which—in
600 almost all people, as it rises—invariably becomes a bit theatrical . . .
director Well, never mind! Never mind about that!—You see, my dear sir,
without the author . . . I could direct you to an author . . .
96 6 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [603–641]

father No, no, look: you be the author!

director Me? What are you talking about?
605 father Yes, you. You. Why not?
director Because I’ve never been an author, that’s why not!
father Couldn’t you be one now, hm? There’s nothing to it. Everyone’s
doing it. And your job is made all the easier by the fact that you have us—
here—alive—right in front of your nose!
610 director It wouldn’t be enough.
father Not enough? Seeing us live our own drama . . .
director I know, but you always need someone to write it!
father No. Just someone to take it down, maybe, since you have us here—in
action—scene by scene. It’ll be enough if we piece together a rough sketch
615 for you, then you can rehearse it.
director [tempted, goes up onstage again] Well, I’m almost, almost
tempted . . . Just for kicks . . . We could actually rehearse . . .
father Of course you could! What scenes you’ll see emerge! I can list them
for you right away.
620 director I’m tempted . . . I’m tempted . . . Let’s give it a try . . . Come to my
office. [Turns to the Actors.] Take a break, will you? But don’t go away. We’ll
be back in fifteen or twenty minutes. [To the father] Let’s see what we can
do . . . Maybe we can get something very extraordinary out of all this . . .
father We certainly can. Wouldn’t it be better to take them along? [He
points to the Characters.]
625 director Yes, let them all come. [Starts going off, then comes back to address
the Actors.] Now don’t forget. Everyone on time. Fifteen minutes.
[director and Six Characters cross the stage and disappear. The Actors
stay there and look at one another in amazement.]
leading man Is he serious? What’s he going to do?
juvenile This is outright insanity.
a third actor We have to improvise a drama right off the bat?
630 juvenile lead That’s right. Like Commedia dell’Arte.4
leading lady Well, if he thinks I’m going to lend myself to that sort of thing . . .
ingenue Count me out.
a fourth actor [alluding to the Characters] I’d like to know who those
people are.
635 the third actor Who would they be? Madmen or crooks!
juvenile lead And he’s going to pay attention to them?
ingenue Carried away by vanity! Wants to be an author now . . .
leading man It’s out of this world. If this is what the theater is coming to,
my friends . . .
640 a fifth actor I think it’s rather fun.
the third actor Well! We shall see. We shall see. [And chatting thus among
themselves, the Actors leave the stage, some using the little door at the back,
others returning to their dressing rooms.]

The curtain remains raised. The performance is interrupted by a twenty-minute

intermission.
Bells ring. The performance is resumed.
4. A traditional form of Italian comedy featuring stock characters, some in masks, who improvise
dialogue.
 [64 2–675] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 967

[From dressing rooms, from the door, and also from the house, the Actors,
the stage manager, the technician, the prompter, the property man
return to the stage; at the same time the director and the Six Charac-
ters emerge from the office.
As soon as the house lights are out, the stage lighting is as before.]
director Let’s go, everybody! Is everyone here? Quiet! We’re beginning.
[Calls the technician by name.]
technician Here!
director Set the stage for the parlor scene. Two wings and a backdrop with
645 a door in it will do, quickly please!
[The technician at once runs to do the job, and does it while the direc-
tor works things out with the stage manager, the property man, the
prompter, and the Actors. This indication of a set consists of two wings,
a drop with a door in it, all in pink and gold stripes.]
director [to the property man] See if we have some sort of bed-sofa in the
prop room.
property man Yes, sir, there’s the green one.
stepdaughter No, no, not green! It was yellow, flowered, plush, and very
650 big. Extremely comfortable.
property man Well, we have nothing like that.
director But it doesn’t matter. Bring the one you have.
stepdaughter Doesn’t matter? Madam Pace’s famous chaise longue!
director This is just for rehearsal. Please don’t meddle! [To the stage man-
655 ager] See if we have a display case—long and rather narrow.
stepdaughter The table, the little mahogany table for the pale blue envelope!
stage manager [to the director] There’s the small one. Gilded.
director All right. Get that one.
father A large mirror.
660 stepdaughter And the screen. A screen, please, or what’ll I do?
stage manager Yes, ma’am, we have lots of screens, don’t worry.
director [to the stepdaughter] A few coat hangers?
stepdaughter A great many, yes.
director [to the stage manager] See how many we’ve got, and have them
665 brought on.
stage manager Right, sir, I’ll see to it.
[The stage manager also hurries to do his job and while the director
goes on talking with the prompter and then with the Characters and the
Actors, has the furniture carried on by stagehands and arranges it as he
thinks fit.]
director [to the prompter] Meanwhile you can get into position. Look:
this is the outline of the scenes, act by act. [He gives him several sheets of
paper.] You’ll have to be a bit of a virtuoso today.
670 prompter Shorthand?
director [pleasantly surprised] Oh, good! You know shorthand?
prompter I may not know prompting, but shorthand . . . [Turning to a stage-
hand] Get me some paper from my room—quite a lot—all you can find!
[The stagehand runs off and returns a little later with a wad of paper
which he gives to the prompter.]
director [going right on, to the prompter] Follow the scenes line by line as
675 we play them, and try to pin down the speeches, at least the most important
968 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [676–722]

ones. [Then, turning to the Actors] Clear the stage please, everyone! Yes,
come over to this side and pay close attention. [He indicates the left.]
leading lady Excuse me but—
director [forestalling] There’ll be no improvising, don’t fret.
680 leading man Then what are we to do?
director Nothing. For now, just stop, look, and listen. Afterward you’ll be
given written parts. Right now we’ll rehearse. As best we can. With them
doing the rehearsing for us. [He points to the Characters.]
father [amid all the confusion onstage, as if he’d fallen from the clouds]
We’re rehearsing? How d’you mean?
685 director Yes, for them. You rehearse for them. [Indicates the Actors.]
father But if we are the characters . . .
director All right, you’re characters, but, my dear sir, characters don’t per-
form here, actors perform here. The characters are there, in the script [He
points to the prompter’s box.]—when there is a script!
690 father Exactly! Since there isn’t, and you gentlemen have the luck to have
them right here, alive in front of you, those characters . . .
director Oh, great! Want to do it all yourselves? Appear before the public,
do the acting yourselves?
father Of course. Just as we are.
695 director [ironically] I’ll bet you’d put on a splendid show!
leading man Then what’s the use of staying?
director [without irony, to the Characters] Don’t run away with the idea
that you can act! That’s laughable . . . [And in fact the Actors laugh.] Hear
that? They’re laughing. [Coming back to the point] I was forgetting. I must
700 cast the show. It’s quite easy. It casts itself. [To the second actress] You,
ma’am, will play the Mother. [To the father] You’ll have to find her a name.
father Amalia, sir.
director But that’s this lady’s real name. We wouldn’t want to call her by
her real name!
705 father Why not? If that is her name . . . But of course, if it’s to be this lady . . .
[He indicates the second actress with a vague gesture.] To me she [the
mother] is Amalia. But suit yourself . . . [He is getting more and more con-
fused.] I don’t know what to tell you . . . I’m beginning to . . . oh, I don’t
know . . . to find my own words ringing false, they sound different somehow.
710 director Don’t bother about that, just don’t bother about it. We can always
find the right sound. As for the name, if you say Amalia, Amalia it shall be;
or we’ll find another. For now, we’ll designate the characters thus: [To the
juvenile lead] You’re the Son. [To the leading lady] You, ma’am, are of
course the Stepdaughter.
715 stepdaughter [excitedly] What, what? That one there is me? [She bursts
out laughing.]
director [mad] What is there to laugh at?
leading lady [aroused] No one has ever dared laugh at me! I insist on
respect—or I quit!
stepdaughter But, excuse me, I’m not laughing at you.
720 director [to the stepdaughter] You should consider yourself honored to
be played by . . .
leading lady [without pause, contemptuously] —“That one there!”
 [723–7 70] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 969

stepdaughter But I wasn’t speaking of you, believe me. I was speaking of

me. I don’t see me in you, that’s all. I don’t know why . . . I guess you’re just
725 not like me!
father That’s it, exactly, my dear sir! What is expressed in us . . .
director Expression, expression! You think that’s your business? Not at all!
father Well, but what we express . . .
director But you don’t. You don’t express. You provide us with raw mate-
730 rial. The actors give it body and face, voice and gesture. They’ve given
expression to much loftier material, let me tell you. Yours is on such a small
scale that, if it stands up onstage at all, the credit, believe me, should all go
to my actors.
father I don’t dare contradict you, sir, but it’s terribly painful for us who
735 are as you see us—with these bodies, these faces—
director [cutting in, out of patience] —that’s where makeup comes in, my
dear sir, for whatever concerns the face, the remedy is makeup!
father Yes. But the voice, gesture—
director Oh, for Heaven’s sake! You can’t exist here! Here the actor acts
740 you, and that’s that!
father I understand, sir. But now perhaps I begin to guess also why our
author who saw us, alive as we are, did not want to put us onstage. I don’t
want to offend your actors. God forbid! But I feel that seeing myself
acted . . . I don’t know by whom . . .
leading man [rising with dignity and coming over, followed by the gay young
745 Actresses who laugh] By me, if you’ve no objection.
father [humble, smooth] I’m very honored, sir. [He bows.] But however
much art and willpower the gentleman puts into absorbing me into him-
self . . . [He is bewildered now.]
leading man Finish. Finish.
[The Actresses laugh.]
750 father Well, the performance he will give, even forcing himself with
makeup to resemble me, well, with that figure [All the Actors laugh.] he can
hardly play me as I am. I shall rather be—even apart from the face—what
he interprets me to be, as he feels I am—if he feels I am anything—and not
as I feel myself inside myself. And it seems to me that whoever is called
755 upon to judge us should take this into account.
director So now you’re thinking of what the critics will say? And I was still
listening! Let the critics say what they want. We will concentrate on putting
on your play! [He walks away a little, and looks around.] Come on, come on.
Is the set ready? [To the Actors and the Characters] Don’t clutter up the stage,
760 I want to be able to see! [He goes down from the stage.] Let’s not lose any
more time! [To the stepdaughter] Does the set seem pretty good to you?
stepdaughter Oh! But I can’t recognize it!
director Oh my God, don’t tell me we should reconstruct Madam Pace’s
back room for you! [To the father] Didn’t you say a parlor with flowered
765 wallpaper?
father Yes, sir. White.
director It’s not white. Stripes. But it doesn’t matter. As for furniture we’re
in pretty good shape. That little table—bring it forward a bit! [Stagehands
do this. To the property man] Meanwhile you get an envelope, possibly a
770 light blue one, and give it to the gentleman. [Indicating the father]
970 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [771–803]

property man A letter envelope?

director and father Yes, a letter envelope.
property man I’ll be right back.
[He exits.]
director Come on, come on. It’s the young lady’s scene first. [The leading
775 lady comes forward.] No, no, wait. I said the young lady. [Indicating the
stepdaughter] You will just watch—
stepdaughter [adding, without pause] —watch me live it!
leading lady [resenting this] I’ll know how to live it too, don’t worry, once I
put myself in the role!
780 director [raising his hands to his head] Please! No more chatter! Now,
scene one. The Young Lady with Madam Pace. Oh, and how about this
Madam Pace? [Bewildered, looking around him, he climbs back onstage.]
father She isn’t with us, sir.
director Then what do we do?
785 father But she’s alive. She’s alive too.
director Fine. But where?
father I’ll tell you. [Turning to the Actresses] If you ladies will do me the
favor of giving me your hats for a moment.
the actresses [surprised a little, laughing a little, in chorus] —What?—Our
790 hats?—What does he say?—Why?—Oh, dear!
director What are you going to do with the ladies’ hats?
[The Actors laugh.]
father Oh, nothing. Just put them on these coathooks for a minute. And
would some of you be so kind as to take your coats off too?
actors [as before] Their coats too?—And then?—He’s nuts!
795 an actress or two [as above] —But why?—Just the coats?
father Just so they can be hung there for a moment. Do me this favor. Will
you?
actresses [taking their hats off, and one or two of them their coats, too, con-
tinuing to laugh, and going to hang the hats here and there on the coathooks]
—Well, why not?—There!—This is getting to be really funny!—Are we to
put them on display?
father Exactly! That’s just right, ma’am: on display!
800 director May one inquire why you are doing this?
father Yes, sir. If we set the stage better, who knows but she may come to
us, drawn by the objects of her trade . . . [Inviting them to look toward the
entrance at the back] Look! Look!
[The entrance at the back opens, and madam pace walks a few paces
downstage, a hag of enormous fatness with a pompous wig of carrot-
colored wool and a fiery red rose on one side of it, à l’espagnole,5 heavily
made up, dressed with gauche elegance in garish red silk, a feathered fan
in one hand and the other hand raised to hold a lighted cigarette between
two fingers. At the sight of this apparition, the director and the Actors at
once dash off the stage with a yell of terror, rushing down the stairs and
making as if to flee up the aisle. The stepdaughter, on the other hand
runs to madam pace—deferentially, as to her boss.]

5. Spanish-style (French).
 [ 8 04 – 8 3 8 ] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 97 1

stepdaughter [running to her] Here she is, here she is!

805 father [beaming] It’s she! What did I tell you? Here she is!
director [overcoming his first astonishment, and incensed now] What tricks
are these?
[The next four speeches are more or less simultaneous.]
leading man What goes on around here?
juvenile lead Where on earth did she come from?
810 ingenue They must have been holding her in reserve.
leading lady Hocus pocus! Hocus pocus!
father [dominating these protests] Excuse me, though! Why, actually, would
you want to destroy this prodigy in the name of vulgar truth, this miracle of
a reality that is born of the stage itself—called into being by the stage,
815 drawn here by the stage, and shaped by the stage—and which has more
right to live on the stage than you have because it is much truer? Which of
you actresses will later re-create Madam Pace? This lady is Madam Pace.
You must admit that the actress who re-creates her will be less true than
this lady—who is Madam Pace. Look: my daughter recognized her, and
820 went right over to her. Stand and watch the scene!
[Hesitantly, the director and the Actors climb back onstage. But the
scene between the stepdaughter and madam pace has begun during the
protest of the Actors and the father’s answer: sotto voce,6 very quietly, in
short naturally—as would never be possible on a stage. When, called to
order by the father, the Actors turn again to watch, they hear madam
pace, who has just placed her hand under the stepdaughter’s chin in
order to raise her head, talk unintelligibly. After trying to hear for a
moment, they just give up.]
director Well?
leading man What’s she saying?
leading lady One can’t hear a thing.
juvenile lead Louder!
stepdaughter [leaving madam pace, who smiles a priceless smile, and walking
825 down toward the Actors] Louder, huh? How d’you mean: louder? These
aren’t things that can be said louder. I was able to say them loudly—to
shame him [Indicating the father]—that was my revenge. For Madam, it’s
different, my friends: it would mean—jail.
director Oh my God! It’s like that, is it? But, my dear young lady, in the
830 theater one must be heard. And even we couldn’t hear you, right here on
the stage. How about an audience out front? There’s a scene to be done.
And anyway you can speak loudly—it’s just between yourselves, we won’t
be standing here listening like now. Pretend you’re alone. In a room. The
back room of the shop. No one can hear you. [The stepdaughter charm-
ingly and with a mischievous smile tells him No with a repeated movement of
835 the finger.] Why not?
stepdaughter [sotto voce, mysteriously] There’s someone who’ll hear if she
[madam pace] speaks loudly.
director [in consternation] Is someone else going to pop up now?
[The Actors make as if to quit the stage again.]

6. Under the voice (Italian); that is, spoken very softly, under the breath.
972 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [ 839 – 88 0 ]

father No, no, sir. She means me. I’m to be there—behind the door—
840 waiting. And Madam knows. So if you’ll excuse me. I must be ready for my
entrance. [He starts to move.]
director [stopping him] No, wait. We must respect the exigencies of the
theater. Before you get ready—
stepdaughter [interrupting him] Let’s get on with it! I tell you I’m dying
845 with desire to live it, to live that scene! If he’s ready, I’m more than ready!
director [shouting] But first we have to get that scene out of you and her!
[Indicating madam pace] Do you follow me?
stepdaughter Oh dear, oh dear, she was telling me things you already
know—that my mother’s work had been badly done once again, the mate-
850 rial is ruined, and I’m going to have to bear with her if I want her to go on
helping us in our misery.
madam pace [coming forward with a great air of importance] Sí, sí, señor,
porque yo7 no want profit. No advantage, no.
director [almost scared] What, what? She talks like that?!
[All the Actors loudly burst out laughing.]
855 stepdaughter [also laughing] Yes, sir, she talks like that—halfway between
Spanish and English—very funny, isn’t it?
madam pace Now that is not good manners, no, that you laugh at me! Yo
hablo8 the English as good I can, señor!
director And it is good! Yes! Do talk that way, ma’am! It’s a surefire effect!
860 There couldn’t be anything better to, um, soften the crudity of the situa-
tion! Do talk that way! It’s fine!
stepdaughter Fine! Of course! To have certain propositions put to you in a
lingo like that. Surefire, isn’t it? Because, sir, it seems almost a joke. When
I hear there’s “an old señor” who wants to “have good time conmigo,”9 I
865 start to laugh—don’t I, Madam Pace?
madam pace Old, viejo, no. Viejito—leetle beet old, sí, darling? Better like
that: if he no give you fun, he bring you prudencia.1
mother [jumping up, to the stupefaction and consternation of all the Actors,
who had been taking no notice of her, and who now respond to her shouts
with a start and, smiling, try to restrain her, because she has grabbed madam
pace’s wig and thrown it on the floor] Witch! Witch! Murderess! My
daughter!
870 stepdaughter [running over to restrain her mother] No, no, mama, no,
please!
father [running over too at the same time] Calm down, calm down! Sit
here.
mother Then send that woman away!
stepdaughter [to the director, who also has run over] It’s not possible, not
875 possible that my mother should be here!
father [also to the director] They can’t be together. That’s why, you see,
the woman wasn’t with us when we came. Their being together would spoil
it, you understand.
director It doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter at all. This is just a preliminary
880 sketch. Everything helps. However confusing the elements, I’ll piece them
7. Yes, yes, yes, Mister, because I . . . (Span- 8. I speak (Spanish).
ish). In Pirandello’s original Italian text, 9. With me (Spanish).
Madam Pace mixes Spanish and Italian. 1. Care, caution (Spanish).
 [88 1–9 09] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 973

together somehow. [Turning to the mother and sitting her down again in
her place] Come along, come along, ma’am, calm down: sit down again.
stepdaughter [who meanwhile has moved center stage again. Turning to
madam pace] All right, let’s go!
madam pace Ah, no! No thank you! Yo aquí no do nada2 with your mother
885 present.
stepdaughter Oh, come on! Bring in that old señor who wants to have
good time conmigo! [Turning imperiously to all the others] Yes, we’ve got to
have it, this scene!—Come on, let’s go! [To madam pace] You may leave.
madam pace Ah sí, I go, I go, go seguramente3 . . . [She makes her exit furi-
ously, putting her wig back on, and looking haughtily at the Actors who
applaud mockingly.]
890 stepdaughter [to the father] And you can make your entrance. No need
to go out and come in again. Come here. Pretend, you’re already in. Right.
Now I’m here with bowed head, modest, huh? Let’s go! Speak up! With a
different voice, the voice of someone just in off the street: “Hello, miss.”
director [by this time out front again] Now look: are you directing this, or
895 am I? [To the father who looks undecided and perplexed.] Do it, yes. Go to
the back. Don’t leave the stage, though. And then come forward.
[The father does it, almost dismayed. Very pale; but already clothed in
the reality of his created life, he smiles as he approaches from the back, as
if still alien to the drama which will break upon him. The Actors now pay
attention to the scene which is beginning.]
director [softly, in haste, to the prompter in the box] And you, be ready
now, ready to write!

THE SCENE
father [coming forward, with a different voice] Hello, miss.
900 stepdaughter [with bowed head and contained disgust] Hello.
father [scrutinizing her under her hat which almost hides her face and noting
that she is very young, exclaims, almost to himself, a little out of complai-
sance and a little out of fear of compromising himself in a risky adventure]
Oh . . . —Well, I was thinking, it wouldn’t be the first time, hm? The first
time you came here.
stepdaughter [as above] No, sir.
father You’ve been here other times? [And when the stepdaughter nods]
905 More than once? [He waits a moment for her to answer, then again scruti-
nizes her under her hat; smiles; then says] Well then, hm . . . it shouldn’t any
longer be so . . . May I take this hat off for you?
stepdaughter [without pause, to forestall him, not now containing her dis-
gust] No, sir, I will take it off! [And she does so in haste, convulsed.]
[The mother, watching the scene with the son and with the two others,
smaller and more her own, who are close to her all the time, forming a
group at the opposite side of the stage from the Actors, is on tenterhooks
as she follows the words and actions of father and stepdaughter with
varied expression: grief, disdain, anxiety, horror, now hiding her face,
now emitting a moan.]
mother Oh God! My God!

2. I do nothing here (Spanish and English). 3. Certainly (Spanish).

9 74 | L U I G I P I R A N D E L L O [ 9 1 0 – 953 ]

father [is momentarily turned to stone by the moaning; then he reassumes the
910 previous tone] Now give it to me: I’ll hang it up for you. [He takes the hat
from her hands.] But I could wish for a little hat worthier of such a dear,
lovely little head! Would you like to help me choose one? From the many
Madam has?—You wouldn’t?
ingenue [interrupting] Oh now, come on, those are our hats!
915 director [without pause, very angry] Silence, for Heaven’s sake, don’t try to
be funny!—This is the stage. [Turning back to the stepdaughter] Would
you begin again, please?
stepdaughter [beginning again] No, thank you, sir.
father Oh, come on now, don’t say no. Accept one from me. To please
920 me . . . There are some lovely ones you know. And we would make Madam
happy. Why else does she put them on display?
stepdaughter No, no, sir, look: I wouldn’t even be able to wear it.
father You mean because of what the family would think when they saw
you come home with a new hat on? Think nothing of it. Know how to han-
925 dle that? What to tell them at home?
stepdaughter [breaking out, at the end of her rope] But that’s not why, sir. I
couldn’t wear it because I’m . . . as you see me. You might surely have
noticed! [Points to her black attire.]
father In mourning, yes. Excuse me. It’s true: I do see it. I beg your par-
930 don. I’m absolutely mortified, believe me.
stepdaughter [forcing herself and plucking up courage to conquer her con-
tempt and nausea] Enough! Enough! It’s for me to thank you, it is not for
you to be mortified or afflicted. Please pay no more attention to what I
said. Even for me, you understand . . . [She forces herself to smile and adds]
I need to forget I am dressed like this.
director [interrupting, addressing himself to the prompter in his box, and
935 going up onstage again] Wait! Wait! Don’t write. Leave that last sentence
out, leave it out! [Turning to the father and stepdaughter] It’s going very
well indeed. [Then to the father alone] This is where you go into the part
we prepared. [To the Actors] Enchanting, that little hat scene, don’t you
agree?
940 stepdaughter Oh, but the best is just coming. Why aren’t we continuing?
director Patience one moment. [Again addressing himself to the Actors]
Needs rather delicate handling, of course . . .
leading man —With a certain ease—
leading lady Obviously. But there’s nothing to it. [To the leading man] We
945 can rehearse it at once, can’t we?
leading man As far as I’m . . . Very well, I’ll go out and make my entrance.
[And he does go out by the back door, ready to reenter.]
director [to the leading lady] And so, look, your scene with that Madam
Pace is over. I’ll write it up later. You are standing . . . Hey, where are you
going?
950 leading lady Wait. I’m putting my hat back on . . . [She does so, taking the
hat from the hook.]
director Oh yes, good.—Now, you’re standing here with your head bowed.
stepdaughter [amused] But she’s not wearing black!
leading lady I shall wear black! And I’ll carry it better than you!
 [ 954 – 9 8 6 ] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 975

director [to the stepdaughter] Keep quiet, please! Just watch. You can
955 learn something. [Claps his hands.] Get going, get going! The entrance!
[And he goes back out front to get an impression of the stage.]
[The door at the back opens, and the leading man comes forward, with
the relaxed, waggish manner of an elderly Don Juan.4 From the first
speeches, the performance of the scene by the Actors is quite a different
thing, without, however, having any element of parody in it—rather, it
seems corrected, set to rights. Naturally, the stepdaughter and the
father, being quite unable to recognize themselves in this leading lady
and leading man but hearing them speak their own words express in
various ways, now with gestures, now with smiles, now with open pro-
tests, their surprise, their wonderment, their suffering, etc., as will be
seen forthwith.
The prompter’s voice is clearly heard from the box.]
leading man Hello, miss.
father [without pause, unable to contain himself] No, no!
[The stepdaughter, seeing how the leading man makes his entrance,
has burst out laughing.]
director [coming from the proscenium, furious] Silence here! And stop that
laughing at once! We can’t go ahead till it stops.
960 stepdaughter [coming from the proscenium] How can I help it? This lady
[the leading lady] just stands there. If she’s supposed to be me, let me tell
you that if anyone said hello to me in that manner and that tone of voice,
I’d burst out laughing just as I actually did!
father [coming forward a little too] That’s right . . . the manner, the tone . . .
965 director Manner! Tone! Stand to one side now, and let me see the
rehearsal.
leading man [coming forward] If I’m to play an old man entering a house of
ill—
director Oh, pay no attention, please. Just begin again. It was going fine.
970 [Waiting for the Actor to resume] Now then . . .
leading man Hello, miss.
leading lady Hello.
leading man [re-creating the father’s gesture of scrutinizing her under her
hat, but then expressing very distinctly first the complaisance and then the
fear] Oh . . . Well . . . I was thinking it wouldn’t be the first time, I
hope . . .
father [unable to help correcting him] Not “I hope.” “Would it?” “Would
975 it?”
director He says: “would it?” A question.
leading man [pointing to the prompter] I heard: “I hope.”
director Same thing! “Would it.” Or: “I hope.” Continue, continue.—Now,
maybe a bit less affected . . . Look, I’ll do it for you. Watch me . . . [Returns
980 to the stage, then repeats the bit since the entrance]—Hello, miss.
leading lady Hello.
director Oh, well . . . I was thinking . . . [Turning to the leading man to have
him note how he has looked at the leading lady under her hat] Surprise . . .

4. That is, a great lover or seducer of women (from the legendary Spaniard of that name).
976 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [987–1023]

fear and complaisance. [Then, going on, and turning to the leading lady] It
985 wouldn’t be the first time, would it? The first time you came here. [Again
turning to the leading man with an inquiring look] Clear? [To the leading
lady] Then you say: No, sir. [Back to the leading man] How shall I put it?
Plasticity! [Goes back out front.]
leading lady No, sir.
leading man You came here other times? More than once?
990 director No, no, wait. [Indicating the leading lady] First let her nod. “You
came here other times?”
[The leading lady raises her head a little, closes her eyes painfully as if
in disgust, then nods twice at the word “Down” from the director.]
stepdaughter [involuntarily] Oh, my God! [And she at once puts her hand
on her mouth to keep the laughter in.]
director [turning round] What is it?
stepdaughter [without pause] Nothing, nothing.
995 director [to the leading man That’s your cue. Go straight on.
leading man More than once? Well then, hm . . . it shouldn’t any longer be
so . . . May I take this little hat off for you?
[The leading man says this last speech in such a tone and accompanies
it with such a gesture that the stepdaughter, her hands on her mouth,
much as she wants to hold herself in, cannot contain her laughter, which
comes bursting out through her fingers irresistibly and very loud.]
leading lady [returning to her place, enraged] Now look, I’m not going to
be made a clown of by that person!
1000 leading man Nor am I. Let’s stop.
director [to the stepdaughter, roaring] Stop it! Stop it!
stepdaughter Yes, yes. Forgive me, forgive me . . .
director You have no manners! You’re presumptuous! So there!
father [seeking to intervene] That’s true, yes, that’s true, sir, but
forgive . . .
1005 director [onstage again] Forgive nothing! It’s disgusting!
father Yes, sir. But believe me, it has such a strange effect—
director Strange? Strange? What’s strange about it?
father I admire your actors, sir, I really admire them, this gentleman
[leading man] and that lady [leading lady] but assuredly . . . well, they’re
1010 not us . . .
director So what? How could they be you, if they’re the actors?
father Exactly, the actors! And they play our parts well, both of them. But
of course, to us, they seem something else—that tries to be the same but
simply isn’t!
1015 director How d’you mean: isn’t? What is it then?
father Something that . . . becomes theirs. And stops being ours.
director Necessarily! I explained that to you!
father Yes. I understand, I do under—
director Then that will be enough! [Turning to the Actors] We’ll be rehears-
1020 ing by ourselves as we usually do. Rehearsing with authors present has
always been hell, in my experience. There’s no satisfying them. [Turning to
the father and the stepdaughter] Come along then. Let’s resume. And
let’s hope you find it possible not to laugh this time.
 [1024–1072] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 97 7

stepdaughter Oh, no, I won’t be laughing this time around. My big

1025 moment comes up now. Don’t worry!
director Very well, when she says: “Please pay no more attention to what I
said . . . Even for me—you understand . . .” [Turning to the father] You’ll
have to cut right in with: “I understand, oh yes, I understand . . .” and ask
her right away—
1030 stepdaughter [interrupting] Oh? Ask me what?
director —why she is in mourning.
stepdaughter No, no, look: when I told him I needed to forget I was
dressed like this, do you know what his answer was? “Oh, good! Then let’s
take that little dress right off, shall we?”
1035 director Great! Terrific! It’ll knock ’em right out of their seats!
stepdaughter But it’s the truth.
director Truth, is it? Well, well, well. This is the theater! Our motto is:
truth up to a certain point!
stepdaughter Then what would you propose?
1040 director You’ll see. You’ll see it. Just leave me alone.
stepdaughter Certainly not. From my nausea—from all the reasons one
more cruel than another why I am what I am, why I am “that one there”—
you’d like to cook up some romantic, sentimental concoction, wouldn’t
you? He asks me why I’m in mourning, and I tell him, through my tears,
1045 that Papa died two months ago! No, my dear sir! He has to say what he did
say: “Then let’s take that little dress right off, shall we?” And I, with my
two-months mourning in my heart, went back there—you see? behind that
screen—and—my fingers quivering with shame, with loathing—I took off
my dress, took off my corset . . .
1050 director [running his hands through his hair] Good God, what are you
saying?
stepdaughter [shouting frantically] The truth, sir, the truth!
director Well, yes, of course, that must be the truth . . . and I quite under-
stand your horror, young lady. Would you try to understand that all that is
1055 impossible on the stage?
stepdaughter Impossible? Then, thanks very much, I’m leaving.
director No, no, look . . .
stepdaughter I’m leaving, I’m leaving! You went in that room, you two, didn’t
you, and figured out “what is possible on the stage”? Thanks very much. I see
1060 it all. He wants to skip to the point where he can act out his [Exaggerating]
spiritual travail! But I want to play my drama. Mine!
director [annoyed, and shrugging haughtily] Oh well, your drama. This is
not just your drama, if I may say so. How about the drama of the others?
His drama [the father], hers [the mother]? We can’t let one character hog
1065 the limelight, just taking the whole stage over, and overshadowing all the
others! Everything must be placed within the frame of one harmonious
picture! We must perform only what is performable! I know as well as you
do that each of us has a whole life of his own inside him and would like to
bring it all out. But the difficult thing is this: to bring out only as much as
1070 is needed—in relation to the others—and in this to imply all the rest, sug-
gest what remains inside! Oh, it would be nice if every character could
come down to the footlights and tell the audience just what is brewing
978 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [1073–1 1 16]

inside him—in a fine monologue or, if you will, a lecture! [Good-natured,

conciliatory] Miss, you will have to contain yourself. And it will be in your
1075 interest. It could make a bad impression—let me warn you—this tearing
fury, this desperate disgust—since, if I may say so, you confessed having
been with others at Madam Pace’s—before him—more than once!
stepdaughter [lowering her head, pausing to recollect, a deeper note in her
voice] It’s true. But to me the others are also him, all of them equally!
director [not getting it] The others? How d’you mean?
1080 stepdaughter People “go wrong.” And wrong follows on the heels of
wrong. Who is responsible, if not whoever it was who first brought them
down? Isn’t that always the case? And for me that is him. Even before I was
born. Look at him, and see if it isn’t so.
director Very good. And if he has so much to feel guilty about, can’t you
1085 appreciate how it must weigh him down? So let’s at least permit him to act
it out.
stepdaughter And how, may I ask, how could he act out all that “noble”
guilt, all those so “moral” torments, if you propose to spare him the horror
of one day finding in his arms—after having bade her take off the black
1090 clothes that marked her recent loss—a woman now, and already gone
wrong—that little girl, sir, that little girl whom he used to go watch coming
out of school?
[She says these last words in a voice trembling with emotion. The
mother, hearing her say this, overcome with uncontrollable anguish,
which comes out first in suffocated moans and subsequently bursts out in
bitter weeping. The emotion takes hold of everyone. Long pause.]
stepdaughter [as soon as the mother gives signs of calming down, somber,
determined] We’re just among ourselves now. Still unknown to the pub-
lic. Tomorrow you will make of us the show you have in mind. You will put
1095 it together in your way. But would you like to really see—our drama? Have
it explode—the real thing?
director Of course. Nothing I’d like better. And I’ll use as much of it as I
possibly can!
stepdaughter Very well. Have this Mother here go out.
1100 mother [ceasing to weep, with a loud cry] No, no! Don’t allow this, don’t
allow it!
director I only want to take a look, ma’am.
mother I can’t, I just can’t!
director But if it’s already happened? Excuse me but I just don’t get it.
1105 mother No, no, it’s happening now. It’s always happening. My torment is
not a pretense! I am alive and present—always, in every moment of my
torment—it keeps renewing itself, it too is alive and always present. But
those two little ones over there—have you heard them speak? They cannot
speak, sir, not anymore! They still keep clinging to me—to keep my tor-
1110 ment alive and present. For themselves they don’t exist, don’t exist any
longer. And she [the stepdaughter], she just fled, ran away from me, she’s
lost, lost . . . If I see her before me now, it’s for the same reason: to renew
the torment, keep it always alive and present forever—the torment I’ve suf-
fered on her account too—forever!
1115 father [solemn] The eternal moment, sir, as I told you. She [the step-
daughter] is here to catch me, fix me, hold me there in the pillory, hanging
 [ 1 1 1 7 – 1 154 ] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 979

there forever, hooked, in that single fleeting shameful moment of my life!

She cannot give it up. And, actually, sir, you cannot spare me.
director But I didn’t say I wouldn’t use that. On the contrary, it will be the
1120 nucleus of the whole first act. To the point where she [the mother] sur-
prises you.
father Yes, exactly. Because that is the sentence passed upon me: all our
passion which has to culminate in her [the mother’s] final cry!
stepdaughter It still rings in my ears. It’s driven me out of my mind, that
1125 cry!—You can present me as you wish, sir, it doesn’t matter. Even dressed.
As long as at least my arms—just my arms—are bare. Because it was like
this. [She goes to the father and rests her head on his chest.] I was standing
like this with my head on his chest and my arms round his neck like this.
Then I saw something throbbing right here on my arm. A vein. Then, as if
1130 it was just this living vein that disgusted me, I jammed my eyes shut, like
this, d’you see? and buried my head on his chest. [Turning to the mother]
Scream, scream, mama! [Buries her head on the father’s chest and with her
shoulders raised as if to avoid hearing the scream she adds in a voice stifled
with torment.] Scream as you screamed then!
mother [rushing forward to part them] No! My daughter! My daughter!
1135 [Having pulled her from him] Brute! Brute! It’s my daughter, don’t you
see—my daughter!
director [the outburst having sent him reeling to the footlights, while the
Actors show dismay] Fine! Splendid! And now: curtain, curtain!
father [running to him, convulsed] Right! Yes! Because that, sir, is how it
actually was!
1140 director [in admiration and conviction] Yes, yes, of course! Curtain!
Curtain!
[Hearing this repeated cry of the director, the technician lets down
the curtain, trapping the director and the father between curtain and
footlights.]
director [looking up, with raised arms] What an idiot! I say Curtain, mean-
ing that’s how the act should end, and they let down the actual curtain!
[He lifts a corner of the curtain so he can get back onstage. To the father]
1145 Yes, yes, fine, splendid! Absolutely surefire! Has to end that way. I can
vouch for the first act. [Goes behind the curtain with the father.]
[When the curtain rises we see that the stagehands have struck that first
“indication of a set,” and have put onstage in its stead a small garden
fountain. On one side of the stage, the Actors are sitting in a row, and on
the other are the Characters. The director is standing in the middle of
the stage, in the act of meditating with one hand, fist clenched, on his
mouth.]
director [shrugging after a short pause] Yes, well then, let’s get to the sec-
ond act. Just leave it to me as we agreed beforehand and everything will be
all right.
1150 stepdaughter Our entrance into his house [the father] in spite of him
[the son].
director [losing patience] Very well. But leave it all to me, I say.
stepdaughter In spite of him. Just let that be clear.
mother [shaking her head from her corner] For all the good that’s come out
of it . . .
98 0 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [ 1 1 5 5 – 1 2 04 ]

1155 stepdaughter [turning quickly on her] It doesn’t matter. The more damage
to us, the more guilt feelings for him.
director [still out of patience] I understand, I understand. All this will be
taken into account, especially at the beginning. Rest assured.
mother [supplicatingly] Do make them understand, I beg you, sir, for my
1160 conscience’ sake, for I tried in every possible way—
stepdaughter [continuing her mother’s speech, contemptuously] To pla-
cate me, to advise me not to give him trouble. [To the director] Do what
she wants, do it because it’s true. I enjoy the whole thing very much
because, look: the more she plays the suppliant and tries to gain entrance
1165 into his heart, the more he holds himself aloof: he’s an absentee! How I
relish this!
director We want to get going—on the second act, don’t we?
stepdaughter I won’t say another word. But to play it all in the garden, as
you want to, won’t be possible.
1170 director Why won’t it be possible?
stepdaughter Because he [the son] stays shut up in his room, on his own.
Then again we need the house for the part about this poor bewildered little
boy, as I told you.
director Quite right. But on the other hand, we can’t change the scenery
1175 in view of the audience three or four times in one act, nor can we stick up
signs—
leading man They used to at one time . . .
director Yes, when the audiences were about as mature as that little girl.
leading lady They got the illusion more easily.
1180 father [suddenly, rising] The illusion, please don’t say illusion! Don’t use
that word! It’s especially cruel to us.
director [astonished] And why, if I may ask?
father Oh yes, cruel, cruel! You should understand that.
director What word would you have us use anyway? The illusion of creat-
1185 ing here for our spectators—
leading man —By our performance—
director —the illusion of a reality.
father I understand, sir, but perhaps you do not understand us. Because,
you see, for you and for your actors all this—quite rightly—is a game—
1190 leading lady [indignantly interrupting] Game! We are not children, sir. We
act in earnest.
father I don’t deny it. I just mean the game of your art which, as this gen-
tleman rightly says, must provide a perfect illusion of reality.
director Yes, exactly.
1195 father But consider this. We [He quickly indicates himself and the other
five Characters.], we have no reality outside this illusion.
director [astonished, looking at his Actors who remain bewildered and lost]
And that means?
father [after observing them briefly, with a pale smile] Just that, ladies and
gentlemen. How should we have any other reality? What for you is an illu-
1200 sion, to be created, is for us our unique reality. [Short pause. He takes sev-
eral short steps toward the director, and adds] But not for us alone, of
course. Think a moment. [He looks into his eyes.] Can you tell me who you
are? [And he stands there pointing his first finger at him.]
director [upset, with a half-smile] How do you mean, who I am? I am I.
 [ 1 2 0 5 – 1 2 52 ] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 98 1

1205 father And if I told you that wasn’t true because you are me?
director I would reply that you are out of your mind. [The Actors laugh.]
father You are right to laugh: because this is a game. [To the director]
And you can object that it’s only in a game that that gentleman there
[leading man], who is himself, must be me, who am myself. I’ve caught
1210 you in a trap, do you see that?
[Actors start laughing again.]
director [annoyed] You said all this before. Why repeat it?
father I won’t—I didn’t intend to say that. I’m inviting you to emerge from
this game. [He looks at the leading lady as if to forestall what she might
say.] This game of art which you are accustomed to play here with your
1215 actors. Let me again ask quite seriously: Who are you?
director [turning to the Actors, amazed and at the same time irritated] The
gall of this fellow! Calls himself a character and comes here to ask me who
I am!
father [dignified, but not haughty] A character, sir, can always ask a man
1220 who he is. Because a character really has his own life, marked with his own
characteristics, by virtue of which he is always someone. Whereas, a man—
I’m not speaking of you now—a man can be no one.
director Oh sure. But you are asking me! And I am the manager,
understand?
1225 father [quite softly with mellifluous modesty] Only in order to know, sir, if you
as you now are see yourself . . . for example, at a distance in time. Do you see
the man you once were, with all the illusions you had then, with everything,
inside you and outside, as it seemed then—as it was then for you?—Well sir,
thinking back to those illusions which you don’t have anymore, to all those
1230 things which no longer seem to be what at one time they were for you, don’t
you feel, not just the boards of this stage, but the very earth beneath slipping
away from you? For will not all that you feel yourself to be now, your whole
reality of today, as it is now, inevitably seem an illusion tomorrow?
director [who has not followed exactly, but has been staggered by the plausi-
bilities of the argument] Well, well, what do you want to prove?
1235 father Oh nothing, sir. I just wanted to make you see that if we [pointing
again at himself and the other Characters] have no reality outside of illu-
sion, it would be well if you should distrust your reality because, though
you breathe it and touch it today, it is destined like that of yesterday to
stand revealed to you tomorrow as illusion.
1240 director [deciding to mock him] Oh splendid! And you’ll be telling me next
that you and this play that you have come to perform for me are truer and
more real than I am.
father [quite seriously] There can be no doubt of that, sir.
director Really?
1245 father I thought you had understood that from the start.
director More real than me?
father If your reality can change overnight . . .
director Of course it can, it changes all the time, like everyone else’s.
father [with a cry] But ours does not, sir. You see, that is the difference. It
1250 does not change, it cannot ever change or be otherwise because it is
already fixed, it is what is, just that, forever—a terrible thing, sir!—an
immutable reality. You should shudder to come near us.
982 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [1253–1300]

director [suddenly struck by a new idea, he steps in front of the father]

I should like to know, however, when anyone ever saw a character get out
of his part and set about expounding and explicating it, delivering lectures
1255 on it. Can you tell me? I have never seen anything like that.
father You have never seen it, sir, because authors generally hide the tra-
vail of their creations. When characters are alive and turn up, living, before
their author, all that author does is follow the words and gestures which
they propose to him. He has to want them to be as they themselves want to
1260 be. Woe betide him if he doesn’t! When a character is born, he at once
acquires such an independence, even of his own author, that the whole
world can imagine him in innumerable situations other than those the
author thought to place him in. At times he acquires a meaning that the
author never dreamt of giving him.
1265 director Certainly, I know that.
father Then why all this astonishment at us? Imagine what a misfortune it
is for a character such as I described to you—given life in the imagination
of an author who then wished to deny him life—and tell me frankly: isn’t
such a character, given life and left without life, isn’t he right to set about
1270 doing just what we are doing now as we stand here before you, after having
done just the same—for a very long time, believe me—before him, trying to
persuade him, trying to push him . . . I would appear before him some-
times, sometimes she [looks at stepdaughter] would go to him, sometimes
that poor mother . . .
1275 stepdaughter [coming forward as if in a trance] It’s true. I too went there,
sir, to tempt him, many times, in the melancholy of that study of his, at the
twilight hour, when he would sit stretched out in his armchair, unable to
make up his mind to switch the light on, and letting the evening shadows
invade the room, knowing that these shadows were alive with us and that
1280 we were coming to tempt him . . . [As if she saw herself still in that study
and felt only annoyance at the presence of all of these Actors] Oh, if only you
would all go away! Leave us alone! My mother there with her son—I with
this little girl—the boy there always alone—then I with him [the father]—
then I by myself, I by myself . . . in those shadows. [Suddenly she jumps up
as if she wished to take hold of herself in the vision she has of herself lighting
1285 up the shadows and alive.] Ah, my life! What scenes, what scenes we went
there to propose to him: I, I tempted him more than the others.
father Right, but perhaps that was the trouble: you insisted too much. You
thought you could seduce him.
stepdaughter Nonsense. He wanted me that way. [She comes up to the
1290 director to tell him as in confidence.] If you ask me, sir, it was because he
was so depressed, or because he despised the theater the public knows and
wants . . .
director Let’s continue. Let’s continue, for heaven’s sake. Enough theo-
ries, I’d like some facts. Give me some facts.
1295 stepdaughter It seems to me that we have already given you more facts
than you can handle—with our entry into his [the father’s] house! You said
you couldn’t change the scene every five minutes or start hanging signs.
director Nor can we, of course not, we have to combine the scenes and
group them in one simultaneous close-knit action. Not your idea at all.
1300 You’d like to see your brother come home from school and wander through
 [1301–1338] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 983

the house like a ghost, hiding behind the doors, and brooding on a plan
which—how did you put it—?
stepdaughter —shrivels him up, sir, completely shrivels him up, sir.
director “Shrivels!” What a word! All right then: his growth was stunted
1305 except for his eyes. Is that what you said?
stepdaughter Yes, sir. Just look at him. [She points him out next to the
mother.]
director Good girl. And then at the same time you want this little girl to be
playing in the garden, dead to the world. Now, the boy in the house, the girl
in the garden, is that possible?
1310 stepdaughter Happy in the sunshine! Yes, that is my only reward, her plea-
sure, her joy in that garden! After the misery, the squalor of a horrible room
where we slept, all four of us, she with me: just think, of the horror of my
contaminated body next to hers! She held me tight, oh so tight with her
loving innocent little arms! In the garden she would run and take my hand
1315 as soon as she saw me. She did not see the big flowers, she ran around
looking for the teeny ones and wanted to show them to me, oh the joy of it!
[Saying this and tortured by the memory she breaks into prolonged des-
perate sobbing, dropping her head onto her arms which are spread out on
the work table. Everyone is overcome by her emotion. The director goes
to her almost paternally and says to comfort her]
director We’ll do the garden. We’ll do the garden, don’t worry, and you’ll
be very happy about it. We’ll bring all the scenes together in the garden.
[Calling a stagehand by name] Hey, drop me a couple of trees, will you,
1320 two small cypress trees, here in front of the fountain.
[Two small cypress trees are seen descending from the flies.5 A stagehand
runs on to secure them with nails and a couple of braces.]
director [to the stepdaughter] Something to go on with anyway. Gives us
an idea. [Again calling the stagehand by name] Hey, give me a bit of sky.
stagehand [from above] What?
director Bit of sky, a backcloth, to go behind that fountain. [A white back-
1325 drop is seen descending from the flies.] Not white, I said sky. It doesn’t mat-
ter, leave it, I’ll take care of it. [Shouting] Hey, Electrician, put these lights
out. Let’s have a bit of atmosphere, lunar atmosphere, blue background,
and give me a blue spot on that backcloth. That’s right. That’s enough. [At
his command a mysterious lunar scene is created which induces the Actors to
talk and move as they would on an evening in the garden beneath the moon.]
[To stepdaughter] You see? And now instead of hiding behind doors in the
1330 house the boy could move around here in the garden and hide behind
trees. But it will be difficult, you know, to find a little girl to play the scene
where she shows you the flowers. [Turning to the boy] Come down this way
a bit. Let’s see how this can be worked out. [And when the boy doesn’t
move] Come on, come on. [Then dragging him forward he tries to make him
1335 hold his head up but it falls down again every time.] Oh dear, another prob-
lem, this boy . . . What is it? . . . My God, he’ll have to say something . . .
[He goes up to him, puts a hand on his shoulder and leads him behind one of
the tree drops.] Come on. Come on. Let me see. You can hide a bit here . . .
Like this . . . You can stick your head out a bit to look . . . [He goes to one

5. The space over the stage from which scenery and equipment can be lowered.
984 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [ 1 3 3 9 – 1 3 74 ]

side to see the effect. The boy has scarcely run through the actions when the
Actors are deeply affected; and they remain quite overwhelmed.] Ah! Fine!
1340 Splendid! [He turns again to the stepdaughter.] If the little girl surprises
him looking out and runs over to him, don’t you think she might drag a few
words out of him too?
stepdaughter [jumping to her feet] Don’t expect him to speak while he’s
here. [She points to the son.] You have to send him away first.
1345 son [going resolutely toward one of the two stairways] Suits me. Glad to go.
Nothing I want more.
director [immediately calling him] No. Where are you going? Wait.
[The mother rises, deeply moved, in anguish at the thought that he is
really going. She instinctively raises her arms as if to halt him, yet with-
out moving away from her position.]
son [arriving at the footlights, where the director stops him] I have abso-
lutely nothing to do here. So let me go please. Just let me go.
1350 director How do you mean, you have nothing to do?
stepdaughter [placidly, with irony] Don’t hold him! He won’t go.
father He has to play the terrible scene in the garden with his mother.
son [unhesitating, resolute, proud] I play nothing. I said so from the start.
[To the director] Let me go.
stepdaughter [running to the director to get him to lower his arms so that he
1355 is no longer holding the son back] Let him go. [Then turning to the son as
soon as the director has let him go] Very well, go. [The son is all set to move
toward the stairs but, as if held by some occult power, he cannot go down the
steps. While the Actors are both astounded and deeply troubled, he moves
slowly across the footlights straight to the other stairway. But having arrived
there he remains poised for the descent but unable to descend. The step-
daughter, who has followed him with her eyes in an attitude of defiance,
bursts out laughing.] He can’t, you see. He can’t. He has to stay here, has
to. Bound by a chain, indissolubly. But if I who do take flight, sir, when
that happens which has to happen, and precisely because of the hatred I
1360 feel for him, precisely so as not to see him again—very well, if I am still
here and can bear the sight of him and his company—you can imagine
whether he can go away. He who really must, must remain here with that
fine father of his and that mother there who no longer has any other chil-
dren. [Turning again to the mother] Come on, Mother, come on. [Turning
1365 again to the director and pointing to the mother] Look, she got up to hold
him back. [To the mother, as if exerting a magical power over her] Come.
Come . . . [Then to the director] You can imagine how little she wants to
display her love in front of your actors. But so great is her desire to get at
him that—look, you see—she is even prepared to live her scene.
[In fact the mother has approached and no sooner has the stepdaugh-
ter spoken her last words than she spreads her arms to signify consent.]
son [without pause] But I am not, I am not. If I cannot go I will stay here,
1370 but I repeat: I will play nothing.
father [to the director, enraged] You can force him, sir.
son No one can force me.
father I will force you.
stepdaughter Wait, wait. First the little girl must be at the fountain. [She
runs to take the little girl, drops on her knees in front of her, takes her
 [1375–1414] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 985

1375 little face in her hands.] My poor little darling, you look bewildered with
those lovely big eyes of yours. Who knows where you think you are? We are
on a stage my dear. What is a stage? It is a place where you play at being
serious, a place for playacting, where we will now playact. But seriously!
For real! You too . . . [She embraces her, presses her to her bosom, and rocks
1380 her a little.] Oh, little darling, little darling, what an ugly play you will
enact! What a horrible thing has been planned for you, the garden, the
fountain . . . All pretense, of course, that’s the trouble, my sweet, every-
thing is make-believe here, but perhaps for you, my child, a make-believe
fountain is nicer than a real one for playing in, hmm? It will be a game for
1385 the others, but not for you, alas, because you are real, my darling, and are
actually playing in a fountain that is real, beautiful, big, green with many
bamboo plants reflected in it and giving it shade. Many, many ducklings
can swim in it, breaking the shade to bits. You want to take hold of one of
these ducklings . . . [With a shout that fills everyone with dismay] No! No,
1390 my Rosetta! Your mother is not looking after you because of that beast of a
son. A thousand devils are loose in my head . . . and he . . . [She leaves the
little girl and turns with her usual hostility to the boy.] And what are you
doing here, always looking like a beggar child? It will be your fault too if
this little girl drowns—with all your standing around like that. As if I hadn’t
1395 paid for everybody when I got you all into this house. [Grabbing one of his
arms to force him to take a hand out of his pocket] What have you got there?
What are you hiding? Let’s see this hand. [Tears his hand out of his pocket,
and to the horror of everyone discovers that it holds a small revolver. She
looks at it for a moment as if satisfied and then says] Ah! Where did you get
that and how? [And as the boy in his confusion, with his eyes staring and
1400 vacant all the time, does not answer her] Idiot, if I were you I wouldn’t have
killed myself, I would have killed one of those two—or both of them—the
father and the son! [She hides him behind the small cypress tree from which
he had been looking out, and she takes the little girl and hides her in the
fountain, having her lie down in it in such a way as to be quite hidden.
Finally, the stepdaughter goes down on her knees with her face in her
hands, which are resting on the rim of the fountain.]
director Splendid! [Turning to the son] And at the same time . . .
son [with contempt] And at the same time, nothing. It is not true, sir. There
1405 was never any scene between me and her. [He points to the mother.] Let
her tell you herself how it was.
[Meanwhile the second actress and the juvenile lead have detached
themselves from the group of Actors. The former has started to observe
the mother, who is opposite her, very closely. And the other has started
to observe the son. Both are planning how they will re-create the
roles.]
mother Yes, it is true, sir. I had gone to his room.
son My room, did you hear that? Not the garden.
director That is of no importance. We have to rearrange the action, I told
1410 you that.
son [noticing that the juvenile lead is observing him] What do you want?
juvenile lead Nothing. I am observing you.
son [turning to the other side where the second actress is] Ah, and here we
have you to re-create the role, eh? [He points to the mother.]
98 6 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [1415–14 61]

1415 director Exactly, exactly. You should be grateful, it seems to me, for the
attention they are giving you.
son Oh yes, thank you. But you still haven’t understood that you cannot do
this drama. We are not inside you, not in the least, and your actors are
looking at us from the outside. Do you think it’s possible for us to live
1420 before a mirror which, not content to freeze us in the fixed image it pro-
vides of our expression, also throws back at us an unrecognizable grimace
purporting to be ourselves?
father That is true. That is true. You must see that.
director [to the juvenile lead and the second actress] Very well, get
1425 away from here.
son No good. I won’t cooperate.
director Just be quiet a minute and let me hear your mother. [To the
mother] Well? You went into his room?
mother Yes sir, into his room. I was at the end of my tether. I wanted to
1430 pour out all of the anguish which was oppressing me. But as soon as he
saw me come in—
son —There was no scene. I went away. I went away so there would be no
scene. Because I have never made scenes, never, understand?
mother That’s true. That’s how it was. Yes.
1435 director But now there’s got to be a scene between you and him. It is
indispensable.
mother As for me, sir, I am ready. If only you could find some way to have
me speak to him for one moment, to have me say what is in my heart.
father [going right up to the son, very violent] You will do it! For your
1440 mother! For your mother!
son [more decisively than ever] I will do nothing!
father [grabbing him by the chest and shaking him] By God, you will obey!
Can’t you hear how she is talking to you? Aren’t you her son?
son [grabbing his father] No! No! Once and for all let’s have done with it!
[General agitation. The mother, terrified, tries to get between them to
separate them.]
1445 mother [as before] Please, please!
father [without letting go of the son] You must obey, you must obey!
son [wrestling with his father and in the end throwing him to the ground
beside the little stairway, to the horror of everyone] What’s this frenzy that’s
taken hold of you? To show your shame and ours to everyone? Have you no
restraint? I won’t cooperate, I won’t cooperate! And that is how I interpret
1450 the wishes of the man who did not choose to put us onstage.
director But you came here.
son [pointing to his father] He came here—not me!
director But aren’t you here too?
son It was he who wanted to come, dragging the rest of us with him, and
1455 then getting together with you to plot not only what really happened, but
also—as if that did not suffice—what did not happen.
director Then tell me. Tell me what did happen. Just tell me. You came out
of your room without saying a thing?
son [after a moment of hesitation] Without saying a thing. In order not to
1460 make a scene.
director [driving him on] Very well, and then, what did you do then?
 [14 62–1490] SIX CHAR ACTER S IN SEARCH OF AN AUT HOR | 987

son [while everyone looks on in anguished attention, he moves a few steps on

the front part of the stage] Nothing . . . crossing the garden . . . [He stops,
gloomy, withdrawn.]
director [always driving him on to speak, impressed by his reticence] Very
well, crossing the garden?
son [desperate, hiding his face with one arm] Why do you want to make me
1465 say it, sir? It is horrible.
[The mother trembles all over, and stifles groans, looking toward the
fountain.]
director [softly, noticing this look of hers, turning to the son, with growing
apprehension] The little girl?
son [looking out into the auditorium] Over there—in the fountain . . .
father [on the ground, pointing compassionately toward the mother] And
she followed him, sir.
1470 director [to the son, anxiously] And then you . . .
son [slowly, looking straight ahead all the time] I ran out. I started to fish her
out . . . but all of a sudden I stopped. Behind those trees I saw something
that froze me: the boy, the boy was standing there, quite still. There was
madness in the eyes. He was looking at his drowned sister in the fountain.
[The stepdaughter, who has been bent over the fountain, hiding the little
1475 girl, is sobbing desperately, like an echo from the bottom. Pause.] I started
to approach and then . . .
[From behind the trees where the boy has been hiding, a revolver shot
rings out.]
mother [running up with a tormented shout, accompanied by the son and all
the Actors in a general tumult] Son! My son! [And then amid the hubbub
and the disconnected shouts of the others] Help! Help!
director [amid the shouting, trying to clear a space while the boy is lifted by
his head and feet and carried away behind the backcloth] Is he wounded,
is he wounded, really?
[Everyone except the director and the father, who has remained on
the ground beside the steps, has disappeared behind the backcloth which
has served for a sky, where they can still be heard for a while whispering
anxiously. Then from one side and the other of this curtain, the Actors
come back onstage.]
1480 leading lady [reentering from the right, very much upset] He’s dead! Poor
boy! He’s dead! What a terrible thing!
leading man [reentering from the left, laughing] How do you mean, dead?
Fiction, fiction, one doesn’t believe such things.
other actors [on the right] Fiction? Reality! Reality! He is dead!
1485 other actors [on the left] No! Fiction! Fiction!
father [rising, and crying out to them] Fiction indeed! Reality, reality, gen-
tlemen, reality! [Desperate, he too disappears at the back.]
director [at the end of his rope] Fiction! Reality! To hell with all of you!
Lights, lights, lights! [At a single stroke the whole stage and auditorium is
flooded with very bright light. The director breathes again, as if freed from
an incubus, and they all look each other in the eyes, bewildered and lost.]
Things like this don’t happen to me, they’ve made me lose a whole day. [He
looks at his watch.] Go, you can all go. What could we do now anyway? It is
1490 too late to pick up the rehearsal where we left off. See you this evening. [As
988 | LU I G I P I R A N D E L LO [149 1–1494]

soon as the Actors have gone he talks to the electrician by name.] Hey,
Electrician, lights out. [He has hardly said the words when the theater is
plunged for a moment into complete darkness.] Hey, for God’s sake, leave
me at least one light! I like to see where I am going!
[Immediately, from behind the backcloth, as if the wrong switch had
been pulled, a green light comes on which projects the silhouettes, clear-
cut and large, of the Characters, minus the boy and the little girl.
Seeing the silhouettes, the director, terrified, rushes from the stage. At
the same time the light behind the backcloth goes out and the stage is
again lit in nocturnal blue as before.
Slowly, from the right side of the curtain, the son comes forward first,
followed by the mother with her arms stretched out toward him; then
from the left side, the father. They stop in the middle of the stage and
stay there as if in a trance. Last of all from the right, the stepdaughter
comes out and runs toward the two stairways. She stops on the first step,
to look for a moment at the other three, and then breaks into a harsh
laugh before throwing herself down the steps; she runs down the aisle
between the rows of seats; she stops one more time and again laughs,
looking at the three who are still onstage; she disappears from the audito-
rium, and from the lobby her laughter is still heard. Shortly thereafter the
curtain falls.]