In cerca dei sei personaggi

On the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of the Teatro Valle in Rome – where the curtain was raised for the first time on 7 January 1727 – Emma Dante stages her rereading of Six characters in search of an author by Luigi Pirandello: destined to become one of the most important theatrical works of the twentieth century, the play debuted on that stage on 9 May 1921 and was deemed scandalous by an audience that failed to recognise the revolutionary power of the Sicilian writer’s brand of theatre.“I direct the actors from my company on a completely empty stage. The spectators take part in our creative process. Before our eyes, six characters are born, the bearers of a painful tragedy, the Father, the Mother, the Son, the Stepdaughter, the Young man and the Little girl. I am the midwife. I question the newborns, we converse, and I listen to their stories. The six characters do not emerge from the wings, instead they are incarnated within the bodies of the actors during the emotions practice, when the level of concentration is extremely high and profound. The audience witnesses this transition, the actor prepares, concentrates, summons the ghost and the character is born, entering the actor with all their expressive strength, their knowledge and their desire to live. I, the director, follow their actions, their words and the gestures that they propose, seeking to match their will. and I gradually discover that they are autonomous, no longer willing to obey my orders. I stand before them. We view each other. We challenge each other. They will not go; they will never leave us”

Duration: the play is currently in production and the duration may vary