Six Characters in Search of an Author (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Luigi Pirandello

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Pirandello's classic play updated for the twenty-first century. Blurring the border between fiction and life, between the stage and the world outside, Six Characters in Search of an Author exploded onto the stage in 1921 as one of the unique achievements of twentieth-century drama. Updated and recontextualised in this vertiginous new version, it becomes a dark parable for a media-obsessed age and an exhilarating exploration of how we define art, ourselves and 'reality' in the twenty-first century. 'exhilarating... stunning' - The Times 'madly ingenious... gives a remarkable new lease of life to Pirandello's seminal play' - Independent 'brilliantly inventive... gets to the heart of Pirandello's meaning while making the old play seem fresh to a modern audience' - Daily Telegraph

Leseprobe

Luigi Pirandello

SIX CHARACTERS INSEARCH OF ANAUTHOR

in a new version by

Rupert Goold and Ben Power

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Epigraph

Original Production

Characters

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

‘Reality is that which, when you stopbelieving in it, doesn’t go away’

Philip K. Dick

This version of Six Characters in Search of an Author was first performed in a co-production between Chichester Festival Theatre and Headlong Theatre Company, at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, on 27 June 2008. The cast was as follows:

ACTOR/PIRANDELLO

Jamie Bower

MOTHER

Eleanor David

PRODUCER

Noma Dumezweni

SON

Dyfan Dwyfor

ACTRESS/

HOUSEKEEPER

Christine Entwisle

STEPDAUGHTER

Denise Gough

CAMERAMAN/

THEATRE-MAKER B

Jake Harders

RUNNER/

THEATRE-MAKER A

Jeremy Joyce

EXECUTIVE/MR PACE

John Mackay

FATHER

Ian McDiarmid

GIRL

Freya Parker

EDITOR

Robin Pearce

Director

Rupert Goold

Designer

Miriam Beuther

Lighting Designer

Malcolm Rippeth

Composer and Sound Designer

Adam Cork

Video and Projection Designer

Lorna Heavey

This production subsequently transferred to the Gielgud Theatre, London, on 15 September 2008 (previews from 10 September).

Characters

THE FATHER

THE MOTHER

THE SON

THE STEPDAUGHTER

THE BOY, twelve years old

THE GIRL, ten years old

PACE, a pimp

THE PRODUCER, a maker of documentary films. Female, mid-thirties

THE EDITOR

THE ACTOR

THE ACTRESS

THE CAMERAMAN

THE RUNNER

THE EXEC, a TV commissioning editor

LULLY, a Danish doctor

HANS, a Danish doctor

ANDREW, fourteen years old

ANDREW’S FATHER

ANDREW’S MOTHER

NURSE

BISHOP, Philip Ratcliffe, the Bishop of Ely

THEATRE-MAKER A

THEATRE-MAKER B

Plus various other roles as indicated in the text.

ACT ONE

A large projection screen. On it, a film of a bleak Danish landscape, which gradually becomes a suburban town. We pass a large, nondescript house, to one side a clutch of pine trees. The camera lingers for a moment, then moves on down a street, past shops and houses, until it arrives at the driveway of a large institutional building. We see a car pull up outside. ANDREW gets out with his PARENTS. A NURSE leaves the building and moves quickly to the car with a wheelchair. ANDREW .