Chee-Chee

Luigi Pirandello (28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for “his almost magical power to turn psychological analysis into good theatre.” Pirandello’s works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello’s tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. The year 1903 was fundamental to the life of Pirandello. The flooding of the sulphur mines of Aragona, in which his father Stefano had invested not only an enormous amount of his own capital but also his wife Antonietta’s dowry, precipitated the financial collapse of the family. Antonietta, after opening and reading the letter announcing the catastrophe, entered into a state of semi-catatonia and underwent such a psychological shock that her mental balance remained profoundly and irremediably shaken. In 1919 Pirandello had his wife placed in an asylum. The separation from his wife, despite her morbid jealousies and hallucinations (please see our production of The Man With the Flower in His Mouth), caused great suffering for Pirandello who, even as late as 1924, believed he could still properly care for her at home. She never left the asylum. He was an Italian nationalist and supported Fascism in a moderate way, at one point giving his Nobel Prize medal to the Fascist government to be melted down as part of the 1935 Oro alla Patria (“Gold to the Fatherland”) campaign during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. He had continuous conflicts with fascist leaders. In 1927 he tore his fascist membership card to pieces in front of the startled secretary-general of the Fascist Party. For the remainder of his life, Pirandello was always under close surveillance by the secret fascist police. Pirandello was nominated Academic of Italy in 1929, and in 1934 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Among his major plays: Right You Are If You Think You Are (1917); Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921); Each in His Own Way (1924); Tonight We Improvise (1930). Our current offering, Chee-Chee, was written in 1920. Pirandello died alone in his home at Via Bosio, Rome. He refused a State funeral offered by Mussolini and only in 1947 were his cremated remains buried in Sicily. Chee-Chee, by Luigi Pirandello (Playing time: 16:12)<br /> Starring Michael Manson, Leslie Gangl-Howe and George Backman. (Before Bernie Madoff there was Chee-Chee) The post Chee-Chee appeared first on SANTA BARBARA THEATRE OF THE AIR.