In Search of

[lillibet]

The other night we saw the production of a new translation of Luigi Pirandello's
_Six Characters Looking for an Author_ at the Young Vic. I was surprised by the
title, since I've always known the play as _Six Characters In Search of an
Author_. It's a small change, but I think that changing from an adjectival
prepositional phrase to an active verb, the translator indicates his
purpose. The script was included in the program--a common custom here when
the plays are new and relatively short--so we were able to compare it to our
older copy. The new version is pared down and much less wordy than the
older version. I wish my Italian were good enough for me to read it in the
original. It's a fascinating meditation on the nature of existence and the
reality of experience. Perhaps these unchanging, fixed characters are, in
some ways, less real but more true than we are, with our constantly changing
personalities and perspectives. I am a different person today than I was a
year ago and certainly than I was ten years ago, but Hamlet still rages in
Denmark as he did four hundred years ago.