Six Characters in Search of an Author - Luigi Pirandello (short novels to read txt) 📗

of the reach of that convention which he has to maintain for other people. And what about my case? Haven’t I had to reveal what no son ought ever to reveal: how father and mother live and are man and wife for themselves quite apart from that idea of father and mother which we give them? When this idea is revealed, our life is then linked at one point only to that man and that woman; and as such it should shame them, shouldn’t it? The Mother hides her face in her hands. From the dressing-rooms and the little door at the back of the stage the Actors and Stage Manager return, followed by the Property Man, and the Prompter. At the same moment, The Manager comes out of his office, accompanied by The Father and The Step-Daughter. The Manager Come on, come on, ladies and gentlemen! Heh! you there, machinist! Machinist Yes sir? The Manager Fix up the white parlor with the floral decorations. Two wings and a drop with a door will do. Hurry up! The Machinist runs off at once to prepare the scene, and arranges it while The Manager talks with the Stage Manager, the Property Man, and the Prompter on matters of detail. The Manager To Property Man. Just have a look, and see if there isn’t a sofa or divan in the wardrobe.⁠ ⁠… Property Man There’s the green one. The Step-Daughter No no! Green won’t do. It was yellow, ornamented with flowers⁠—very large! and most comfortable! Property Man There isn’t one like that. The Manager It doesn’t matter. Use the one we’ve got. The Step-Daughter Doesn’t matter? It’s most important! The Manager We’re only trying it now. Please don’t interfere. To Property Man. See if we’ve got a shop window⁠—long and narrowish. The Step-Daughter And the little table! The little mahogany table for the pale blue envelope! Property Man To The Manager. There’s that little gilt one. The Manager That’ll do fine. The Father A mirror. The Step-Daughter And the screen! We must have a screen. Otherwise how can I manage? Property Man That’s all right, Miss. We’ve got any amount of them. The Manager To The Step-Daughter. We want some clothes pegs too, don’t we? The Step-Daughter Yes, several, several! The Manager See how many we’ve got and bring them all. Property Man All right! The Property Man hurries off to obey his orders. While he is putting the things in their places, The Manager talks to the Prompter and then with the Characters and the Actors. The Manager To Prompter. Take your seat. Look here: this is the outline of the scenes, act by act. Hands him some sheets of paper. And now I’m going to ask you to do something out of the ordinary. Prompter Take it down in shorthand? The Manager Pleasantly surprised. Exactly! Can you do shorthand? Prompter Yes, a little. The Manager Good! Turning to a Stage Hand. Go and get some paper from my office, plenty, as much as you can find. The Stage Hand goes off, and soon returns with a handful of paper which he gives to the Prompter. The Manager To Prompter. You follow the scenes as we play them, and try and get the points down, at any rate the most important ones. Then addressing the Actors. Clear the stage, ladies and gentlemen! Come over here Pointing to the Left. and listen attentively. Leading Lady But, excuse me, we.⁠ ⁠… The Manager Guessing her thought. Don’t worry! You won’t have to improvise. Leading Man What have we to do then? The Manager Nothing. For the moment you just watch and listen. Everybody will get his part written out afterwards. At present we’re going to try the thing as best we can. They’re going to act now. The Father As if fallen from the clouds into the confusion of the stage. We? What do you mean, if you please, by a rehearsal? The Manager A rehearsal for them. Points to the Actors. The Father But since we are the characters.⁠ ⁠… The Manager All right: “characters” then, if you insist on calling yourselves such. But here, my dear sir, the characters don’t act. Here the actors do the acting. The characters are there, in the “book” Pointing towards Prompter’s box.⁠—when there is a “book”! The Father I won’t contradict you; but excuse me, the actors aren’t the characters. They want to be, they pretend to be, don’t they? Now if these gentlemen here are fortunate enough to have us alive before them.⁠ ⁠… The Manager Oh this is grand! You want to come before the public yourselves then? The Father As we are.⁠ ⁠… The Manager I can assure you it would be a magnificent spectacle! Leading Man What’s the use of us here anyway then? The Manager You’re not going to pretend that you can act? It makes me laugh! The Actors laugh. There, you see, they are laughing at the notion. But, by the way, I must cast the parts. That won’t be difficult. They cast themselves. To the Second Lady Lead. You play the Mother. To The Father. We must find her a name. The Father Amalia, sir. The Manager But that is the real name of your wife. We don’t want to call her by her real name. The Father Why ever not, if it is her name? Still, perhaps, if that lady must.⁠ ⁠… Makes a slight motion of the hand to indicate the Second Lady Lead. I see this woman here Means The Mother. as Amalia. But do as you like. Gets more and more confused. I don’t know what to say to you. Already, I begin to hear my own words ring false, as if they had another sound.⁠ ⁠… The Manager Don’t you worry about it. It’ll be our job to find the right tones. And as for her name, if you want her Amalia, Amalia it shall be; and