Questa sera si recita a soggetto

From ESAT
(Redirected from Tonight We Improvise!)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Questa sera si recita a soggetto ("tonight we improvise") is a play by Luigi Pirandello ()[1]

The original text

Based on Pirandello's 1910 novella Leonora, addio! (1910) and Nino Martoglio's 1915 stage adaptation called L'aria del continente, the Pirandello play was written between the end of 1928 and the start of 1929 as the last of his trilogy of metatheatrical plays.

First performed in Königsberg on 25 January, 1930, in a German translation by Harry Kahn (with the title Heute Abend wird aus dem Stegreif gespielt). It had its first Italian performance on 14 April 1930 in the Teatro di Torino, directed by Guido Salvini.

Translations and adaptations

According to Wikipedia[2], it has been translated into English as Tonight We Improvise! by Samuel Putnam (1932), Marta Abba (1959), and J. Douglas Campbell and Leonard Sbrocchi (1987).

It was made into a TV film by RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana in 1956.[3]

Translated into Afrikaans as Vanaand Improviseer Ons by an unnamed author (possibly Ben Dehaeck). A copy of this text found in archives of the Stellenbosch Drama Department in 2022.

Another Afrikaans version is a translation of the Primo intermezzo section, named Tussenspel, also by an unnamed author (A set of texts found in archives of the Stellenbosch Drama Department). (Not to be confused with the one-act play by Jac J. Brits

Performance history in South Africa

circa 1984: Vanaand Improviseer Ons (or Tussenspel) performed by students at the University of Stellenbosch/members of the Breughel Teater, directed by Ben Dehaeck.

Sources

https://www.pirandelloweb.com/questa-sera-si-recita-a-soggetto/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight_We_Improvise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Pirandello

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7231310/

https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Dehaeck

Copy of Tussenspel, an Afrikaans translation of the Primo Intermezzo, found in the Stellenbosch University drama archives.

Go to ESAT Bibliography

Return to

Return to PLAYS I: Original SA plays

Return to PLAYS II: Foreign plays

Return to PLAYS III: Collections

Return to PLAYS IV: Pageants and public performances

Return to South African Festivals and Competitions

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page