Six Characters in Search of an Author

Although Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) wrote over 50 plays, his reputation on the boards rests primarily with this "theatre within the theatre" mindbender that opens on a semi-ludicrous note but--long before the final curtain falls--ultimately forces the audience to reexamine their ideas concerning personal identity. From the illustrious Broadway Theatre Archives series of plays recorded for public television (see review of Death of a Salesman in VL-9/02), this 1976 production directed by Stacy Keach moves the action from the original setting of a theatre stage to a television studio, where a harried TV director (John Houseman) is desperately trying to get his cast assembled for a rehearsal when a bizarre electrical interference transports six "characters" (including Andy Griffith, Julie Adams, Beverly Todd and James Keach) into their midst. Facing these fictional constructs whose story is unfinished, the director and real cast members are gradually drawn into the characters' checkered family tale (we know something is up from the odd tableau: in addition to Griffith, we see a white woman in mourning, an angry young black woman, a standoffish white man, and a pair of black children). As the story unfolds, the excited director enlists his own cast members to play out the scenes, much to the annoyance and derision of the characters, who are "less real, but more true." Ultimately, the characters impart an important human truth: "time makes [our] reality an illusion," since humans, unlike fixed characters, are constantly changing. Sporting a surprisingly sharp image for a 1976 film, Six Characters in Search of an Author is a natural choice for high school, public library, and academic collections. Definitely recommended. [Note: four other new titles in this landmark series are also available--Elizabeth Swados' Alice at the Palace, Jean Renoir's Carola, James Prideaux's The Last of Mrs. Lincoln, and Maxwell Anderson's The Star Wagon.] Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)