Jun 213 min read

Tonight We Improvise | The Heterοclitus

Updated: Jun 24

"Tonight We Improvise" by Luigi Pirandello, by the Glyfada Theatre Group "The Heteroclitus

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

Every year, at the end of our performances, happy but exhausted, we say that next year we will choose an easier, more accessible play. And every year, circumstances and our restless spirit lead us to something more demanding than the previous ones!

Thus, this year we set sail for even more unknown waters, with a play of many levels and boundless extensions! Luigi Pirandello's "Tonight We Improvise" !

In this work, as in his other works, the author wants to explore the relationships between "Art" and "Life". Inspired by the performance that a troupe is preparing, about "the terrible jealousy of a man for his partner's past," he secretly takes us backstage to see with our own eyes how a performance is "cooked up". The tense relationships between the director, who wants to abolish everything familiar in theater with his effects and modern forms, and the actors who struggle to connect with their roles, to give flesh and bones to the paper ghosts that eagerly await to be awakened by their voices, form the core of the play. However, in reality, the play invites us to look behind the dozens of masks we all wear in life to present what is pleasing to our social circle! With the mask changes we see on stage, where people become actors, with fears and anxieties, roles with desires and purposes, and finally humans again with weaknesses and limits, we realize how many masks each of us has "constructed" to hide even from ourselves who we truly are! The author does not seek deeper meanings and reflections; he wants to show us how captive and bound we are to what we try to portray and from which we can no longer escape.

For us, we confess, the challenge was great and to be honest, we doubt whether we will manage to present to you most aspects of this multifaceted psychograph, the introspection the author sought! However, we tried with all our might, and for that, we are proud! "With the lips I have, I kiss you" they say in Crete and we did our

best to reach as far as possible into the depths of the human existence. From here on you take the reins! Enjoy the show!

A few backstage photos from the rehearsals.