Six Characters In Search Of An Author

Since its introduction to the public in 1921, Six Characters in Search of an Author has been inspiring theatre artists towards the absurd realm of the metatheatrical. Both absurd theatre and the idea of something being metatheatrical in fact have strong roots in Six Characters in Search of an Author, as it was so ahead of its time in terms of realism and naturalism on stage. In the vein of the original production, subsequent productions of the piece have strived for the same shock value the first performance held over its audience. Whether in the angry first audience, the more accepting and open later audiences of the era, or the modern audiences of today; the play evokes a strong sense of discomfort and ambiguity as directors and theatre …show more content…
They entered the stage from an elevator, an innovation at the time that “enhanced the impression that the characters came from another world or another level of reality.” (introduction Frese Witt, xi). They appealed to the audience directly with their personal realities of what was happening, further blurring the line between whether or not the audience was watching a play or participating in one. To the audience of 1923 though, this use of a play within a play within a play gave them the sense that they were finally seeing the strings pulling the system which complemented their sense of disillusionment …show more content…
As they are discussing and editing the final episode, a family of six barges in to find someone to tell their story, to write their story. Parallels are made between the telling of stories using “reality” TV (which in actual real life is not nearly as exciting as editing makes the story seem) and the characters searching for an author. This version centers less on the ambiguous state of the six characters and the actors and much more on the distortion of reality that most entertainment is. It assigns each important member of the family and the production with a catchy title “the flirt” “the attitude” “the producer” “the father figure, minimizing each character to be nothing more than the thing that describes them the most. In Pirandello’s true intention, eliminating all the details and outside lives that real people have and isolating the characters in nothing but the one moment they are suspended in forever. By simultaneously mocking and utilizing catchy reality TV show titles, the Park Square production succeeds in modernizing where many others have failed, it limits the characters to being nothing more than caricatures; and begs the question “isn’t that what our society expects reality television to do