A blustering theatre director and his egotistical cast are in the midst of a rehearsal when a rag-tag family of characters enter, desperately seeking an author to complete their partially-finished stories. The director is not a writer, and the actors are skeptical, but before they know it they have all been drawn into the tragicomic tales of the Six Characters, and must see the drama through to its end.
A metatheatrical comedy, Six Characters in Search of an Author cemented Luigi Pirandello’s international reputation, and is now considered a classic piece of absurdist theatre. Nestled within the illogical narrative of the titular Six Characters are questions of truth, illusion, ownership, and authorship, making the play both a nonsensical and philosophical farce.
Six Characters in Search of an Author guide sections