Six Characters in Search of an Author, Essay Example

The play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, written by Luigi Pirandello is a tragicomedy, which is a fictional piece that favors both the genres of tragedy and comedy.  This play was performed for the first time at the Teatro Valle in Rome, Italy in 1921.  The audience at the Teatro Valle was assorted with various types of individuals that began a riot during its first appearance.  The audience began to scream and shout “Manicomio!,” which translates as “Madhouse.”  However, the play eventually improved its response throughout the years shortly after.  In fact, it improved so significantly that the play Six Characters in Search of an Author played on Broadway at the Princess Theatre in 1922.

The play Six Characters in Search of an Author conveys an extremely interesting theme of the actual and genuine “theater of the theater.”  Six Characters in Search of an Author expresses drama through various elements constantly used throughout the theater—“in this care, through the conflict between actors, manager and characters, and the missing author (Sparknotes 1).”  Luigi Pirandello conveys the theatrical drama throughout the play through the dynamics of the stage.  Initially, the play begins with a rehearsal, however six characters reverse the drama onto themselves.

The man, the writer, the instrument of the creation will die, but his creation does not die. And to live for ever, it does not need to have extraordinary gifts or to be able to work wonders. Who was Sancho Panza? Who was Don Abbondio? Yet they live eternally because –– live germs as they were –– they had the fortune to find a fecundating matrix, a fantasy which could raise and nourish them: make them live for ever (Pirandello 8)!

With this quote, Pirandello attempted to convey the importance of characters throughout the theater.  Although, the other people involved with theater are significant, such as the directors, the writers and the stage crew, the characters that are created throughout a play lives eternally.  “Six Characters often appears improvisational, sketch-like, what the Manager calls a “glorious failure.” Note the aborted rehearsal, rejected and incompletely drawn characters, hastily assembled sets, and onward (Sparknotes 2).”  Characters are symbolized as an emotion from a particular individual expressed throughout the character of a play.

These six characters give emotional and powerful performances throughout the play, and their stories seem so dominant than the audience has no choice but to believe it.  All the characters perform with extreme sensitivity and convey irony throughout their performance.

Put otherwise, the play is an allegory for the theater. Thus it presents  characters dubbed the Second Leading Lady and Property Man and it hinges on multiple frames of (self)-reference, staging the staging of a play within the play. Akin to a hall of mirrors, this device, the mise-en- abîme, is common to  plays that would reflect on the properties of their own medium. Self- referentiality attains heights here. The play’s act divisions, for example,  mirror those of the Characters’ drama, a number of scenes show the Actors playing the doubles of the audience, and onward (Sparknotes 1).

Luigi Pirandello conveys a powerful message to individuals about the power of the theater, which should be appreciated by everyone.  The performance that is given by all these actors, especially the six characters, is powerful and entertaining to the fullest.  The play itself sends a message to individuals that nothing is always, as it seems.  “Throughout the play, the Father insists on the reality of the Characters, a reality that, as the stage notes indicates, inheres in their forms and expressions (Sparknotes1).”  Some individuals may think that theater is only based inside a play and is written.  However, Pirandello exemplifies the drama in theater, outside the actual written and scripted play.  The storyline is extremely interesting and automatically captures the audience into watching it.  An individual’s first impression may be that the play is uninteresting, especially since it is aged.  However, once the six characters perform their emotional scenes, the audience has no choice but to be interested.

In the play’s preface, Pirandello confesses an aversion to the use of symbol in the theater. If we take the term loosely, however, we can identify a number of symbolic structures and objects in the play. First, as noted above, the play itself is symbolic of, or more accurately, an allegory for, the theater itself. Second, some of Six Characters’s readers have suggested the symbolic properties of the Characters themselves (“Sparknotes” 1).

In essence, the play, Six Characters in Search of an Author for several reasons.  Luigi Pirandello conveys a strong and impeccable theme of “theater in theater,” that can strongly impact any individual, especially those individuals involved in theater.  The play conveyed several types of theater and almost every drama performance that could occur.   Luigi Pirandello conveyed intensity throughout his play and allowed every individual to share the special concepts of theater.

Works Cited

Alexander Street Press. “Six Characters in Search of an Author, by Luigi Pirandello, directed by Stacy Keach, performed by John Houseman, Andy Griffith & Julie   Adams, (Broadway Theater Archive, 1976), 87:51 min.” Theatre in Video.  Retrieved on 3 December 2011. <http://ativ.alexanderstreet.com.ezproxy.uwindsor.ca/view/657500/play/true/>. (2011)

Pirandello, Luigi.  “Six Characters in Search of an Author.” Retrieved on 4 December <http://www.planetmonk.com/dramageeks/scripts/sixcharacters.pdf > (2011).

Sparknotes. “Six Characters in Search of an Author.” SparkNotes. Retrieved on 4 December 2011. <http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/sixcharacters/themes.html>. (2011).