Rappresentazione teatrale "L'uomo, la bestia e la virtù"

"The Man, the Beast and the Virtue": a comedy in two acts, based on the novella "Call to Duty" by Luigi Pirandello, which was first performed at the Teatro Olimpia in Milan on May 2, 1919.

The comedy, staged by the New Theatrical Company, narrates the paradoxical and grotesque situation in which the respectable and upright Prof. Paolino (the Man) finds himself, having an affair with the “Virtuous Mrs. Perella”, who is two months pregnant by the professor. Prof. Paolino is forced to try in every way to ensure that Captain Perella (the Beast) fulfills his marital duty, even though the Captain is completely insensitive to the charm of his wife (he has an illegitimate family in another seaside town) and stubbornly evades his duties as a husband. The pirandellian comic force will lead to a succession of grotesque scenes and also to anguished tension until the objective of the two lovers is reached.

In the work, Pirandello clearly shows how, in the everyday reality, it is the most serious and respectable people who act with falsehood and hypocrisy. Pirandello defined the work as a “farce drowned in tragedy,” as behind the seemingly scandalous situation of the farce lies a more melancholic condition, all played out on false conventions and moral prejudices.