ebooks Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comedie-Francaise by Rachel Brownstein in Arts-Photography

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Peter S. HadresAs described; and fast delivery.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Katgood adaptation. very fluid.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Slightly Dated Landmark of Existentialistic and Absurdist DramaBy Gary F. TaylorLuigi Pirandello was not the first avant-garde playwright of the modern era whose work provoked outragemdash;Alfred Jarryrsquo;s UBO ROI of 1896 comes to mindmdash;but by 1921 Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was well on his way to notoriety. A novelist and poet as well as a playwright; Pirandellorsquo;s work often questioned the nature of truth; reality; and illusion; and SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR became for many his ultimate theatrical statement. The play is presented on a largely bare stage with various set pieces; props; and drops. The cast size is a bit variable; and several roles could be played by either man or woman; in a general sense; however; the play requires five men; five women; two children (a boy about eleven; a girl about five); and other minor players. There are no unusual props; but certain portions of the play would benefit from a mysterioso style. It is performed in three acts.The play begins by presenting a working stage; where a theatrical director and his players are rehearsing a play by Pirandello himselfmdash;a play the director ridicules; he will later admit he regrets having agreed to stage it. In the middle of the rehearsal; the stage door opens and six people walk in: The Father; The Mother; The Son; The Step-Daughter; The Little Boy; and The Little Girl. With The Father as their central spokesman; they declare that they are characters created but then abandoned by a writer who did not finish his work. They have come to the theatre to demand they be performed. The director and actors are at first amused; then astonished; and then somewhat outragedmdash;but after hearing bits of their story; the director believes it would make a better play than the one he is presently doing. He agrees to try to stage it.The story the characters present is convoluted and hinges on an incident in which the Father visits a house of prostitution and very nearly has sex with his step-daughter; who he does not recognize. The director attempts to have the characters play out various scenes while having the prompter take down the dialogue and having the actors study the charactersmdash;but they run into a series of unexpected issues. Each character tends to remember various incidents differently; and they often demand specific sets and props that the theatre does not have for rehearsal. When the actors attempt to play the scenes; the characters ridicule them; declaring they are in no way like themselves. As the play progresses; Pirandello layers questions about truth and realitymdash;and the answers he gives to these questions is essentially that there is no answer; no way to discover any absolute.When it debuted much of the audience booed and jeered (many shouted ldquo;madhouse!rdquo;); but the play and its ideas were so startling that it quickly achieved a significant status and launched Pirandello to international acclaim. (In 1934 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.) By todayrsquo;s standards; however; the play is even more problematic than it was in 1921. Much of the script is in the form of long and often philosophical monologues; generally from The Director; The Father; and The Step-Daughter as they argue back and forth. I have not seen the play performedmdash;and it may play very differentlymdash;but the script reads as somewhat dry. It is a landmark; at the very root of existentialistic and absurdist drama; so it should be read and studied; but it is perhaps better left to academics.GFT; ReviewerIn Memory of Jackie Wilson