Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) is the most famous work of Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello, first published in 1925.

Pirandello describes how the concept came about in the preface to the published work: an abortive attempt at a play which he gave up on after realising that "I have already afflicted my readers with hundreds and hundreds of stories. Why should I afflict them now by narrating the sad entanglements of these six unfortunates?" The characters, however, already extant in his mind were "creatures of my spirit, these six were already living a life which was their own and not mine any more, a life which it was not in my power any more to deny them."

In Six Characters in Search of an Author the audience is confronted with the unexpected arrival of these six characters during the rehearsals for a play (incidentally, one of Pirandello's own) and insist on being given life, on being allowed to tell their story. The play spends much time vividly demonstrating the limitations of the theatre as a medium of story-telling. It would be wrong, however, to dismiss the play as simply an exercise in the much explored realm of meta-theatre since it also delves into the larger questions of defining existence and hinting at the responsibilities inherent in creativity.

Adaptations

1992: BBC film adaptation directed by Bill Bryden.