Chapter 19 - Dialect Theatre

Summary

La morsa and Lumìe di Sicilia, Pirandello’s first plays in Sicilian dialect, were staged in 1910 at the Metastasio theatre in Rome on the initiative of fellow playwright Nino Martoglio. In stops and starts, Pirandello would continue to write works in dialect until Martoglio’s death in 1921, a period that coincides with Pirandello’s recognition, worldwide, as an extraordinarily innovative dramatist. Nevertheless, his dialect works continued to live on, sometimes even translated into other dialects. This chapter recounts this aspect of Pirandello’s career, paying special attention to the collaboration with the highly successful Teatro Umoristico of the famed Eduardo De Filippo and his siblings on the writing of a dialect play version of Pirandello’s novella “L’abito nuovo.” For De Filippo, another legend of the Italian theatre, this writing partnership was a true passing of the baton between the two greatest Italian dramatists of the century.