Mrs. Pirandello
and Mr. Marlowe
Mrs. Pirandello, Sought and Found
By Byron Toben
The eclectic Centaur Wildside included an impressive ensemble show by Michaela Di Casare, In Search of Mrs. Pirandello.
I had seen it at the Montreal Fringe and although it was there billed as only a work in progress, I felt that it was finished enough. In that production, three of our finest local actors handled a dozen cameos but were unavailable for the Wildside reprise.
However, the key duo, Davide Chiazzese (as the great Nobel playwright) and author Michaela DiCesare (as his little known wife) remain and Adam Capriolo, Paulo DePaola and Tara Nicodemo filled in impressively as nuns, relatives and officials.
Ms. Di Cesare also played a present day researcher (herself) who, puzzled by the fact that the only paper trace to the wife of such a famous person existed in a lone foot note, embarked on a long search in dusty Italian archives to devise this play, now enhanced by restaging in a proper theatre.
Coincidentally, Mr. Chiazzese’s ancestors came from the same small Sicilian town as Luigi Pirandello himself. After one of the show’s five showings, the glossy quarterly magazine Panorama Italia sponsored a buffet reception with Sicilian delicacies.
Theatre aficionados should not miss this show should it be restaged again.
Image: Liv Wright
Looking ahead: Conspiracy!
In 1593, it was hard to distinguish a printed S from an F (still is). It’s worth the effort to catch the latest Chocolate Moose Theatre Company production in a short run at the Mainline Theatre, Conspiracy! a moft dramatickale lamentable comeddie of the death? of Chriftopher Marlowe.
Marlowe of course, was the talented contemporary of Willy Shakespeare, rumoured to be a spy as well as the author of seven classic plays, who died in a tavern brawl at only 29. This keystone kops version introduces some possible assassins and promises hilarity and corpses.
Conspiracy! runs from Thursday, September 21 to Sunday, September 24.
Tickets at mainlinetheatre.ca
Image: courtesy of Chocolate Moose Theatre Company
Byron Toben is the immediate past-president of the Montreal Press Club.
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