Number fifty nine in NHB's Drama Classics Series, providing the world's great drama at a great price.
The introduction to this edition of Six Characters In Search Of An Author includes a short biography of Luigi Pirandello and chronology of his work; a guide to what happens in the play; a short history of the play in performance and its context; and a brief guide to characterisation, language and themes.
Pirandello's play is about the nature of theatre and the problems of theatricality. When six characters, whose author has abandoned them mid-process, turn up at a rehearsal and demand to be played by the actors present an absurd drama ensues in which the characters attempt to resolve their tragedy and become 'real'.
Pirandello's classic of twentieth century theatre is introduced and presented here in a brilliant new translation by Stephen Mulrine.