Luigi Pirandello (that's him over to the left, looking a bit like Rasputin) had daddy issues, a mad wife, and a controversial relationship with fascism and Mussolini. So maybe it's not a surprise that we're still puzzling over what his plays mean, exactly. With major problems in his life that, at the same time, were so ephemeral, so hard to pin down, maybe it's not a surprise that he was preoccupied with the question of reality.
I've only ever read two of his plays - "Six Characters in Search of an Author" and "Right You Are (If You Think You Are)" - but there are definite thematic similarities - the strange, the unexplained, the unknowable. "Right You Are" is about a small town's total inability either to understand who a neighbor's new wife is or to stop trying to figure her out. And "Six Characters" ... well, do we even have to summarize? The title alone is bizarre, unique, and instantly memorable. Something strange is about to happen here.
Maybe the strangest thing, for me, was how the Characters rather interchangeably called their story a "drama" and a "comedy." Drama I can see - lots of drama. You might even call it a tragedy; the Manager's line that ends the play - "I've lost a whole day over these people, a whole day!" - is brutal in its denial, to the Characters, of any kind of reality. But comedy? Yes, the play's funny; yes, it's unnerving, and sometimes laughter is the only way to deal with what's unnerving.
But comedy? Are we talking in a "Divine," Dantean sense, where "comedy" stands for "life"? We're not meant to laugh at the Characters, are we? Not at the end? Is it a comedy of unreality, where what's mocked are the Actors and the Manager, and what's real are the wandering Characters? Just what IS real here; what's okay to laugh at, and what's okay to be moved by?
Calling it a comedy implies that it's all fair game, even the strange metarealistic nature of the Characters. But I've been poking around on the Internet, and I haven't yet found an image of the Characters that contains that comedy, the hilarity of having figments of someone else's imagination gate-crashing your rehearsal. This one, for instance:
A bit eerie, no? The Characters are so sharply defined by the light and the camera focus that they really do look somewhat unreal - and at the same time, so much more tangible than the grumpy Actors in the background. The all-black really does help with that - dare I say it - illusion, both of reality and unreality. Here they are, sharp-edged and precise; here they are, but how can such precision be real?
So where does it get funny? Not here either, at least not for me:
AAAAAHHH! Ghost painting that's going to come alive at night and eat my beating heart!
Maybe a bit extreme. But creepy nonetheless. What are we supposed to do with these somber black clothes, this delineating, ethereal light they're surrounded in? These direct gazes that demand recognition? What's real here? How do we know it's real? And where, God help us, is the comedy?
Because I think we need it, at this point. A whole play of these dead-serious, not-quite-real stares? These intense demands? We need a break - the human mind needs comedy to make it easier to swallow the point of the play. But where do we get it?
The first video on YouTube that pops up when you search "Six Characters in Search of an Author" is this promo for a college production:
Tres gloomy! Ending the promo on the Mother's scream makes this look like a suspense thriller or even a horror. Yes, yes, suspense sells tickets. But where's the comedy? It's there in the reading - where is it here? The Characters call their story a comedy, and a play this relentlessly dark would be kind of unpalatable.
I like this one a lot better.
Maybe to American ears, the Scottish accents in themselves lend a little levity. But I don't think that's all. This trailer takes itself much less seriously. Not UNseriously - but this production seems like it would acknowledge the presence of the word "comedy," and the touches of real humor in the play. Plus the fuzzy faces are extremely awesome, AND remind us that the play's big concern is with reality. What IS it? Who has it? How do we know?
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