CAN PIRANDELLO REBOOT DELHI'S THEATRE SCENE?

Theatre legend MK Raina sounds the alarm on the future of the theatre scene in Delhi, once the centre of dramatic arts in the country. His new production of Luigi Pirandello's controversial 1921 play to be staged tonight is a means to urge society to ask the hard questions.

- Kartik Chauhan

WHEN it was first performed in Italy in 1921, Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author caused riots on the streets of Rome. Orio Vergani, an eye-witness to the aftermath of the first performance, wrote: "Beautiful women, with painted lips, jeered and repeated: madhouse! Elegant young men with white ties sneered and shouted insults [...]" Despite its early reception, or rather, rejection, the play has been performed globally and repeatedly over the last century, with stellar actors in key roles—Ralph Fiennes played the Producer in a 1987 production. Eminent thespian and activist MK Raina has brought the play to Delhi with a Hindi production: Lekhak Ki Khoj Mein Kirdar.

Shouldered by a superb cast—Rakesh Kumar Singh, Kavita Seth, Arti Nayar, Aradhana Singh, Pakhi Sinha and others—this unforgettable Indian production of a classic Italian play that redirected the trajectory of modern European drama in the 20th century is a clarion call in many ways.

Pirandellism meets Rainaism