The Man With the Flower in His Mouth

SANTA BARBARA THEATRE OF THE AIR

Luigi Pirandello (28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays.

Pirandello’s works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello’s tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.

He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for “his almost magical power to turn psychological analysis into good theatre.”

In 1894, following his father’s suggestion he married a shy, withdrawn girl educated by the nuns of San Vincenzo: Antonietta Portulano.

In 1903, the flooding of the sulphur mines of Aragona, in which Pirandello’s father Stefano had invested not only an enormous amount of his own capital but also Antonietta’s dowry, precipitated the collapse of the family. Antonietta, after opening and reading the letter announcing the catastrophe, entered into a state of semi-catatonia and underwent such a psychological shock that her mental balance remained profoundly and irremediably shaken.

In 1919 Pirandello had his wife placed in an asylum. Separation from her, despite her morbid jealousies and hallucinations, caused him great suffering; even as late as 1924, he believed he could still properly care for her at home. She never left the asylum.

Among Pirandello’s most famous plays: Right You Are (If You Think You Are) (1917); Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921); Henry IV (1922); Each in His Own Way (1924).

Our current production,The Man With the Flower in His Mouth (1922) is partly noteworthy for becoming, in 1930, the first piece of television drama ever to be produced in Britain, when a version was screened by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1925, Pirandello, with the help of Mussolini, assumed the artistic direction and ownership of the Teatro d’Arte di Roma. He described himself as “a Fascist because I am Italian.” For his devotion to Mussolini, the satirical magazine Il Becco Giallo used to call him P. Randello (randello in Italian means club).

In 1927 he tore his fascist membership card to pieces in front of the startled secretary-general of the Fascist Party. For the remainder of his life, Pirandello was always under close surveillance by the secret fascist police.

Pirandello died alone in his home at Via Bosio, Rome.

The Man With the Flower in His Mouth, by Luigi Pirandello (Playing time: 20:30)
Starring William Smithers and Pope Freeman

(A casual conversation between strangers turns dark.)

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