The Search for Theatre Forms

Abstract

No study of Pirandello’s explorations of theatre form would be complete without a consideration of his experiments with the one-act play. His very first attempt at writing for the theatre in 1898 was a one-act play, L’epilogo (The Epilogue) which was published in that year but not produced. In 1910 Nino Martoglio, the Sicilian playwright and producer, directed two short plays by Pirandello: The Epilogue, now entitled La Morsa (The Vice) and Lumie di Sicilia (Sicilian Limes), thus beginning Pirandello’s involvement with the professional theatre. His interest in the form of the one-act play continued for the rest of his life, with Sogno, ma forse no? (A Dream, But Perhaps It Isn’t) being written in 1931 and only performed in Italy in 1937 after his death. In his Foreword to his translations of Pirandello’s one-act plays, William Murray declares that a close reading of these thirteen little dramas will provide an excellent survey in miniature of Pirandello’s work as a playwright.1