Six Characters in Search of an Author

     Personally, I absolutely love this play.  I feel like the message Pirandello meant to sent out in this precursor to Absurdism, is that the actor must become the character...he must live through the story.  So often times actors cannot fully depict what an author is trying to convey in a play.  This is partly to do with the characters living beyond the actual reality of life and time, but also has to do with the soul of a character.  I admit, the first time I read Six Characters two years ago, I struggled immensely with the plot and the idea of characters existing apart from the actors who were meant to play them.  We are taught constantly in theatre that illusion is key.  An actor, set designer, costumer, lighting designer are all intrinsic parts of luring the audience into the plot, creating the illusion of reality.  What Pirandello is saying here is that the characters ARE a reality in themselves.  In order for an actor to give a representation of a character, they must fully embody this reality by BECOMING the character.  Unfortunately, while the character's reality is real, the actor's is not...this is one of the great challenges of performing.  Pirandello also emphasizes the idea that man is nothing because his reality is directed by time and is ultimately fleeting.  However, a character is immortalized forever in his or her reality...it is fixed permanently in existence for many more people to experience and read, however it never changes.
     Pirandello also explores the function of the Author of a play.  Throughout the action on stage the author is constantly present though unseen.  The characters are in search of him to find an ending for themselves, but also to find some purpose to their story.  This is why the Step-Daughter argues that the actors could never perform their story correctly because only they have lived it, but also she is looking for some validation from her author that comes in the form of being glorified onstage.  Overall, Six Characters is a marvelous piece of work that not only makes one think about people and their place in this world, but how theatre is a function for representation.  Without theatre (in any form) the stories of our most beloved characters could not be glorified or shared with the world to their fullest capacity.  An actor must not only portray a character, but find a part of their soul that intertwines with their story.  Only then can a character be fully appreciated and played to an audience.