Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was born in the village of Caos in Sicily, the son of a wealthy family of mine-owners. He was reluctant to enter the family business, however. He began studying law at the University of Palermo, moved to the University of Rome and finally graduated from the University of Bonn, where he competed a dissertation on the Sicilian dialect. He married Antonietta Portulano, the daughter of his father’s business partner, with whom he had three children. In 1903, their families were financially ruined because of a landslide at the mine. His wife’s already fragile psychological state was further destabilised, and the life of the couple was marked by a gradual worsening of her mental health and eventual confinement in an asylum until her death.
 

Despite the difficulties of his home life, but also as a way out of financial difficulties, Pirandello was extremely prolific, producing twenty-seven full-length and sixteen one-act plays, as well as short stories, novellas, novels and articles. His works explored the relativity of truth, the dissociation between what seems to be and what is, the relationship of illusion and reality, and the tension between reason and madness. Another major preoccupation is the theme of the mask and the multiplicity of the self. His multi-faceted view of the world and the unique theatricality of his plays had a decisive influence on modern drama. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1934, but his links with Mussolini’s fascist party cast a shadow over his reputation. He chose to live outside Italy for several years, a decision that has been linked with his frustration at life under the fascist regime. He died of pneumonia at his home in Rome in 1936. His final wish not to have a funeral and for his death to go unreported in the newspapers was not, of course, respected.

 

A short list of his plays: 
Right You are—If You think You are, The pleasure of honesty, Six characters in search of an author, Enrico IV, To clothe the naked, Tonight we improvise, The mountain giants (unfinished).

 

Don’t you see what they are after? They all want the truth—a truth, that is: Something specific; something concrete! They don’t care what it is. All they want is something categorical, something that speaks plainly! Then they’ll quiet down. (Right You are—If You think You are)

 

Do you know what it means to find yourselves face to face with a madman—with one who shakes the foundations of all you have built up in yourselves, your logic, the logic of all your constructions? (Enrico IV)