What is reality? What is the mask of the theater? Luigi Pirandello's theatrical philosophizing is most prominent in a trio of works, of which this is the last. In the first, the more familiar Three Characters In Search Of An Author, the characters completely commandeer a rehearsal to reenact their sordid story, over the Director's protests. With a musing on theater audiences ("To Each His Own" - 1924) intervening, Pirandello takes the opposite stance in this play, dating from 1930. In what may be a covert political statement on the times, the author demonstrates the director, Dr. Hinkfuss, to be the ultimate manipulator of his larger-than-life cast. In typical Ronconi fashion, the production is on a level of elaboration that, in America at least, is reserved for musicals. He emphasizes surprise with chairs that popup and down from the flies and rapidly moving sets. In contrast to Pirandello's reliance on imagination and simple staging, Ronconi realizes each stage direction and textual allusion with the maximum means.
Bathed in Sergio Rossi's atmospheric lighting, the long religious procession that traverses the upstage area goes well beyond Pirandello's indications. A night scene that follows turns out to be the high point of the evening. Dance interludes to piano accompaniment break up the dialogue, and sensual gestures are yet another reference to the author's Sicilian roots. While the production's visual elements are simple, layered atop one another they achieve a great impact. Marco Capuana has prairie-style wire fencing applied to the Teatro Argentina's ample proscenium area and wings, and scattered rows of metal seating hang from all surfaces.
Vera Marzot uses turn-of-century costumes for an appropriately old-fashioned ambience. Among the excellent cast, Manuela Mandracchia as an expansive Chanteuse and Massimo Popolizio's masterful Doctor Hinkfuss should be singled out. After closing, the production was set to continue to Milan and Paris.
