Collected Plays

<p>The third volume of Luigi Pirandello's collected plays contains major work, but <i>The Rules of the Game</i> is by far the best known. First performed in 1918, the action of the play does not all take place on the surface; situations are suddenly reversed when the mind of the deceived husband becomes clear to the audience. This biting comedy verging on farce also contains a tragic moral. <i>Each in his own Way</i> (1924) is a variation on <i>Six Characters in Search of an Author</i>, Pirandello's best known play. The interplay between the characters and their stage representations surprises and involves the audience in the nature of reality. <i>Grafted</i> (1917) is more conventional on the surface but hides a cunning metaphor based on the principle of the graft of a garden plant. <i>The Other Son</i> (1923) digs deep into the reality of peasant life in Sicily. A young doctor unearths a horrifying story in his attempt to understand why a poverty-stricken old woman writes to her far-away sons for help while ignoring another son who lives in the same village.</p>