Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Italian: Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) is a 1921 Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, first performed in that same year. An absurdist metatheatrical play about the relationship between authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners, it premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome to a mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" ("Madhouse!"), though the reception improved at subsequent performances – helped when Pirandello provided for the play's third edition, published in 1925, a foreword clarifying its structure and ideas. The play had its American premiere in 1922 on Broadway at the Princess Theatre.

In South Africa it was produced by Rollo Gamble with the newly founded Theatre Club at the Little Theatre in 1938, as the first professional production to be staged at this theatre. The cast were Zoë Randall, Wensley Pithey, Marot Lassner, Frank Hammerton, Fred Loehnen and Rollo Gamble. Produced in 1941 by the Johannesburg Reps with André Huguenet and Margaret Inglis, under the direction of Leontine Sagan.

Ses Personasies op soek na 'n Skrywer, the translation into Afrikaans by Fred le Roux in 1974 of Luigi Pirandello's play was presented by Universiteitsteater Stellenbosch in the H.B. Thom Theatre in August and September 1974, directed by Ria Olivier, assisted by Johann van Heerden.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Characters_in_Search_of_an_Author

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