The Joy of Six

Anyone afraid of serious plays will find solace in Six Characters in Search of an Author

by Mark Cofta

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Published: Oct 16, 2007

I'm wary of "significant" plays, the classics we're taught to revere; too often, they're not particularly entertaining. Many students reject theater after slogging through Oedipus' complexities or a dated translation of A Doll's House, and who can blame them?

So I braced for disappointment before Louis Lippa's "freely adapted" translation of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author at People's Light & Theatre Co. The title offers a delicious theatrical concept, but I've seen the play flop with audiences before.

My low expectations only added to the pleasure of Ken Marini's fascinating production. The play's still a philosophical exploration of the insoluble problem of illusion and reality, but also an enjoyable human story about compassion and indifference. Moreover, this version explores theater in a lively, believable way: its soaring magic, of course — Dennis Parichy's sublime lighting of the finale! — but also its practitioners' frailty, callousness and egotism.

All that and more — ponderings about characters' relationship not only to the actor and audience, but to the playwright (and, by extension, perhaps man's connection to God) — but without that classic heaviness some rightfully dread.

Scenic designer Arthur Rotch subtly transforms the Steinbright Stage into an old theater arranged for rehearsal. As the audience mills, a stage manager (Cathy Simpson) and assistant (Matt Mezzacappa) brew coffee. Then a director (Peter DeLaurier) and actors arrive to rehearse Pirandello's Have It Your Way, cleverly blending typical announcements about cell phones and sponsors into their banter — until the Father (Stephen Novelli) and family barge in, demanding that their play be finished. An author created them, but left their shocking story incomplete. Won over (after some humorous cynicism), the company devotes its day to studying these characters, raising those Big Questions: What is pretend and what is real? What defines a character? Is there any such thing as "the real thing"?

Marini's superb ensemble contrasts the "real" actors with their fictional counterparts well, led by Kim Carson's saucy Stepdaughter, Ceal Phelan's seething Mother and Marcia Saunders' hilarious turn as seventh character Madame Pace. We're swept along by their unfolding tragedy, their urgency making the play's Big Questions engrossing.

Anyone afraid of serious plays — from the Greeks and Shakespeare to Beckett and, yes, Pirandello — will find solace and satisfaction in this brilliant production.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Through Nov. 4

People's Light & Theatre Co.39

Conestoga Road, Malvern,610-644-3500, www.peopleslight.org

 

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