The
University of Rochester’s International Theatre Program is playing Luigi Pirandello’s Six
Characters in Search of an Authorto
surprisingly potent effect. It’s hard to tell, though, whether that theatrical
strength comes from, or despite, director Michael
Barakiva’s “adaptation” of this modern masterpiece.
           Like two other
plays from Pirandello’s early collection, Naked
Masks, Six Characters begins with
a theatrical rehearsal that is interrupted and redefined by outsiders. The
intruders here are the title Characters, who want the troupe to put their story
onstage. Their author, they explain, has refused to do so, in effect abandoning
them in limbo.
           Of course, the
theater Company has reservations. And so will the Characters when they see the
distortion of actors playing changed versions of their “real,”
unchangeable selves. At the end, after a genuine tragedy gets played out and
the Characters’ children really die, the Company is horrified and the Director
complains that he has wasted a whole day.
           Initially, it
seems that Barakiva is simply trashing Pirandello’s great drama. A motley group
of loud, young people sprawl all over, throwing things about and breaking them,
hollering meaninglessly, while the Stage Manager shouts at them in frenzied
fury. Hardly anything they say or do is related to Pirandello’s script, and
it’s all undercut by simultaneous, competing actions and talk from others
onstage. A guy lets a chicken out of a cage, then yells when it seems to attack
him. Two giggling girls who can’t enunciate any lines intelligibly seem to say
that they can’t appear in the play tonight (which cheered me up). An
over-the-top, phony lead actress comes in with a cute, small, hyperactive dog
— but the wrong one is led off. Eventually, the Director makes a big
entrance. She’s a pretty woman who screams like everyone else and is no more
believable.
           But when the six
Characters enter, in Jane Cox’s eerie lighting, costumed from another era, made
up in whiteface, and surrounded by swirling vapor, they not only change the
atmosphere, but act with commanding intensity. Noshir Dalal’s eloquent Father
is intensely involving, even in his most abstractly philosophical discussions,
and much of what follows sounds like real Pirandello dialogue, despite the
occasional intrusion of contemporary vulgarisms. What’s more, the Actors grow
in integrity as they become increasingly involved in the Characters’ story.
Amanda Goff’s Director builds in authority and honesty of acting style until
she is the center of the play, even more so than the Father and his screwed-up
family. This contrast between the initial crapping around with the pretense of
innovation and the subsequent immersion into the Six Characters’ drama seems
intended to drive home Pirandello’s contrast between theatrical illusion and
artistic reality.
           Of course,
Pirandello’s groundbreaking play is about much more than that simplistic
contrast. He also explores distinctions between mundane reality and the
illuminating, mimetic art of the theater. Ideas of identity, reality vs.
illusion, family connections, and how art lies about the truth it portrays also
abound. In fact, Pirandello pretended that this play itself is a transference
of his own disinclination to tell these characters’ story, because he found it
less intriguing than the story of their appearing to him and wanting their own
lives shown.
           Perhaps the cast
simply get into Pirandello’s intriguing drama and gain effectiveness once
Barakiva lets them play it. UR’s Theatre Program’s young actors have shown
great energy, and even bravery, in throwing themselves into experiment. Matthew
Wolfe takes some scary-looking stumbles so that we can believe his clumsy Male
Lead really does hurt his leg. More subtly, his awful initial acting
miraculously grows convincing as the Company’s interaction with the Characters
evolves. The same is mostly true of Robyn Gonzales’ formerly hopeless-seeming
Female Lead. And even the Characters initially have some awkward missteps that
they quickly grow out of. For whatever reason, Kali Quinn’s necessarily strong
Stepdaughter at first “performs” the number from Chu Chin Chow with awkward, wrong gestures, while singing in a
hooty, off-key voice. But she’s fine after that.
           It’s hard
to figure out this production’s many contrasts. Robin I. Shane’s costumes for
the Characters seem ideal, except for the Mother’s moldy-looking gauze dress
and veil, and her gloves full of holes. Deep meaning intended there? The acting
Company all look to be students who didn’t change clothes to appear onstage.
           Kris
Stone’s set is evocative, but simple and messy. Those energetic students do a
showy scene change for the final 10-minute intermission, during which they run
in and out, bringing 50 additional chairs; assemble and raise a 35-foot teaser;
lift up the floor-platforms and carry them off; then set up lights and a water
pump to reveal a large, working fountain. At that point, Stone’s set becomes
complex and handsome. But then, the final moments of the play are made into
exaggerated, pretentious tableaux, with the Actors appearing just as ghostly
and unreal as the implausibly returning Characters.
           What’s it
all about, Luigi? Pirandello wouldn’t have a clue.
Six Characters in Search of an Author, by Luigi Pirandello, adapted and directed by
Michael Barakiva, plays Wed.-Sat., Nov. 20-23, at Todd Theatre on the
University of Rochester’s River Campus, at 8 p.m. Tix: $5-$8. 275-4088,
www.rochester.edu/college/eng/theatre.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2002.
