Performed at the

Maskers' Bassett Studio

on

30^th October to 4^th November 1978

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello was born in Sicily on June 28th 1867, the son of a fairly wealthy mother and father. To avoid drawing attention to their unpopular pro-Garibaldi political beliefs, the family had withdrawn to their country estate, where Pirandello spent a comfortable childhood.

Clearly unsuitable for a career in commerce Pirandello studied at Rome and Bonn before accepting a post at a teachers college for women in Rome. His life was clouded by a series of melancholy events, including a desperately unhappy marriage, which clearly influenced his attitude to life. He believed that life.was rendered ridiculous by self-deception, by the creation of inner realities sporadically exposed as vain and illusory. Pirandello filled his writings with “bitter compassion for all those who fool themselves”.

He was a prolific writer and established an enviable reputation as a poet, dramatist and novelist, winningthe Nobel Prize for literature in 1934.

He died in Rome on December 10th 1936 and, in keeping with his distaste for the deceptions and illusions of life, he requested the simplest possible cremation and funeral.

Daytime: The Stage of a Theatre

The play has neither acts nor scenes. Its performance will be interrupted twice : once when the Producer and the principal characters go away to write the script and the Actors leave the stage, and a second time when the Man on the Lights makes a mistake.

The Characters of the Play in the Making
The Father	David Pike
The Mother	Hazel Burrows
The Stepdaughter	Linda Edwards
The Son	John Turnbull
The Boy	Marco Thomas
The Little Girl	Zoe Brookes
Madame Pace	Jenni Watson

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The Actors in the Company
The Producer	David Bartlett
The Leading Lady	Sheana Carrington
The Leading Man	David Freemantle
The Second Female Lead	Jenny Mcconnel
The Ingenue	Meri Lawther
The Juvenile Lead	Brian Stansbridge
Other Actors And Actresses	Jane Haworth, Maggie Newell, Liz Thorrington, Robert Smith,Becket Pennington-Legh
The Stage Manager	Brian Whitaker
The Prompter	Janet Courtice
The Foreman Of The Stage Crew	Derek Sealey
The Producer’s Secretary	Maureen Pearce
Lighting Man	Mike McDermid

For the Maskers:
Directed by	Philippa Taylor
Technical Director	Alan Baker
Lighting Design	Ron Tillyer
Business Management	Graham Buchanan
Publicity	Brian Stansbridge

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