Three Plays: Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV, The Mountain Giants (Oxford World's Classics) by Luigi Pirandello Read Free Book Online Page B

Royal Academy of Italy (1929). Lateran Treaty (1929) settles relations between the Italian state and the Vatican.
    Claudel,
The Satin Slipper
(1929); Alberto Moravia,
The Time of Indifference
(1929).
1930–3
Last play in metatheatre trilogy,
Tonight We Improvise
(1930) with satirical allusion to German director Max Reinhardt (‘Dr Hinkfuss’).
As You Desire Me
(1930) and
Finding Oneself
(1932), like the earlier
Diana and Tuda
, written with Marta Abba in mind.
When Someone is Somebody
(1933) reflects P’s own experience as a celebrated ageing artist. Travels widely (Paris, Lisbon, Prague, Los Angeles, Montevideo), but now resides in Germany where some of his plays receive their first performance.
    Brecht,
The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
(1930); O’Neill,
Mourning Becomes Electra
(1930).
1934–5
Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature (1934).
The Fable of the Changeling Son
(1934), opera by Malipiero with libretto by P, performed in Germany and Italy and quickly banned by both regimes. Publishes first and second parts of
The Mountain Giants
(1934), conceived as conclusion to myth trilogy. Still seeking state funding for a national theatre, makes fulsome speech in Mussolini’s presence supporting Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935).
1936
Marta Abba leaves for the United States. P dies 10 December in Rome and is cremated. His will forbids funeral ceremonies of any kind. Italian military help to Nationalists in Spanish Civil War.
1937
First performance of unfinished
Mountain Giants
, Florence, 5 June.

CHARACTERS
    The Characters of the Play in the Making
    The Father
    The Mother
    The Stepdaughter
    The Son
    The Young Boy (non-speaking)
    The Little Girl (non-speaking)
    Madame Pace
    The Theatre Company
    The Director
    The Leading Lady
    The Leading Man
    The Second Actress
    A Young Actor
    A Young Actress
    Other Actors and Actresses
    The Stage Manager
    The Prompter
    The Property Man
    The Technician
    The Director’s Secretary
    The Usher
    Stagehands and Staff
    The action takes place in daytime on the stage of a theatre. The play has no act or scene divisions, but the performance is interrupted twice: first when, with the curtain still up, the
DIRECTOR
and the
FATHER
withdraw to compose the scenario and the
ACTORS
clear the stage; second, when the
TECHNICIAN
lowers the curtain by mistake
.
    On entering the theatre, the audience finds the curtain raised and the stage as it is during the day, with neither wings nor scenery, empty and almost in darkness, so that right from the start the impression is that of an improvised performance
.
    Stairways, left and right, connect the stage with the auditorium. On the stage the cover has been removed from the
PROMPTER ’
s box and lies next to the hatch. On the other side, downstage, for the
DIRECTOR ,
a small table and an armchair with its back turned to the audience. Also downstage two more tables, one larger and one smaller, with several chairs, ready for use if needed in rehearsal, other chairs scattered right and left for the
ACTORS ;
upstage, to one side, a half-hidden piano
.
    When the houselights go down, the
TECHNICIAN ,
in dark blue overalls and with tool bag at his belt, enters through the stage door: from a corner at the back, he takes a few planks, comes forward, and kneels down to nail them together. The noise of hammering brings the
STAGE MANAGER
running from the dressing rooms
.
    STAGE MANAGER . Hey! What are you doing?
    TECHNICIAN . What am I doing? I’m knocking in these nails.
    STAGE MANAGER . What? Now? [
Looks at his watch
] It’s already half past ten. Any moment now the Director will be here for the rehearsal.
    TECHNICIAN . But I need some time to do my job as well.
    STAGE MANAGER . You’ll have it; but not now.
    TECHNICIAN . So when?
    STAGE MANAGER . When it’s not rehearsal time. Come on. Take all that stuff away, and let me get the stage ready for the second act of
The Rules of the Game
. *
    Mumbling and grumbling, the
TECHNICIAN
picks up the planks and