‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’ Mirrors Reality

John Turner

The relationship between the writer and his audience and their connections to reality itself are the themes of “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” Luigi Pirandello’s philosophical drama that has performances March 27-May 14 at A Noise Within in Pasadena. The production is a “play-within-a-play” that tells the story of six characters who take over a theater and demand that their story is told and is an adaptation of Pirandello’s original Italian play written by American dramatist Robert Brustein. The production at A Noise Within is co-directed by ANW artistic directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott.

When Pirandello’s “Six Characters” first premiered in Rome in 1921 audiences were amazed by its originality. (And some were even angered by it; According to popular legend, the playwright attended the opening performance but had to exit the theater through a side entrance in order to avoid the enraged mob waiting for him out front.) Nonetheless, Pirandello’s work was a success when it came to Broadway the next year and is now considered the play most responsible for ushering in the Theater of the Absurd movement of the mid-20th century.

The “play-within-a-play” story of “Six Characters in Search of an Author” focuses on a group of characters – each with archetypal names like The Father and The Stepdaughter – who interrupt the rehearsal of another of Pirandello’s plays and demand that they are allowed to act out their tragic story. The Director agrees but asks his own actors to take notes as they will need to act it out themselves later. (And yes, the plot is confusing. It’s supposed to be.) As the play progresses – the “real” play, not the one being acted out in the story – the lines between reality and fiction converge (or diverge, depending on your perspective). By the third act, audiences will be baffled by just who the real actors are. But not to worry. Everything sort of comes together at the play’s end. The question is, which play?

It’s what the playwright termed “mirror theater”: a work that turns a mirror onto theater itself and blurs the lines between reality and fiction. And while audiences may leave the building in a state of slight confusion, it will be overshadowed by contentment from this stunning show.

“Six Characters in Search of an Author” opens at A Noise Within on March 27 and has performances on selected dates through May 14. For information, a performance schedule and tickets, visit A Noise Within’s event page.