''Liolà'' () is an Italian stage play written by

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power ...

in 1916, which takes place in 19th century

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. The original text was composed in the Sicilian dialect of

Agrigento Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...

. The title character is a middle-aged single father by choice. He has three young boys, each by a different mother. Liolà is a free-spirit who wanders from town to town, looking to connect with nature, and to create children without having any ties to the mother. He tries to sell one of his boys to Zio Simone, a crabby elderly man, who becomes offended by the offer. He then has an encounter with Mita, a former lover, who tells him that he is the father of her unborn child. Pirandello immortalizes Liolà as an ideal father, and in certain scenes in the play, Liolà shows a lot of love and affection to his children. "Liola disclosed an unfamiliar side of Pirandello. It is the work of his Sicilian origins and in place of the fractured perspective of illusion and reality its view of the world is as down-to-earth as a primitive painting with landscape and figures equally expressive of the one theme of fecundity."

Film adaptations

* ''

Liolà ''Liolà'' () is an Italian stage play written by Luigi Pirandello in 1916, which takes place in 19th century Sicily. The original text was composed in the Sicilian dialect of Agrigento. The title character is a middle-aged single father by cho ...

'' directed by Alessandro Blasetti; written by Sergio Amidei, Elio Bartolini, Alessandro Blasetti, 1964 * ''Liolà'' di

Gabriele Lavia Gabriele Lavia (born 10 October 1942) is an Italian actor, film director and theatre director. Biography Lavia was born in Milan, Lombardy. Since 1970 he has had roles in nearly thirty films and television programs. He is known for his appe ...

, 2005

Theatrical adaptation

*The Bloomsbury Theatre premiered the English language performance of Pirandello`s Liola by

Internationalist Theatre Internationalist Theatre is a London theatre company founded by South African Greek actress Angelique Rockas in September 1980. The company was originally named New Internationalist Theatre, with an intention to pursue an internationalist approac ...

(then registered as New Internationalist Theatre) in London on the 28th July 1982 directed and translated by Fabio Perselli , who also collaborated with Victoria Glyn to compose the original music . The multifarious accents of the actors cast from multi-cultural backgrounds was an issue for

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

For others: ." The pleasures of the performance with its occasional songs based on ballads and tarantellas , lay in the village vitality, the lusty folk element. .and the children romped about deliciously. A very good evening of an unusual kind.". "The main thing an English audience has to grasp is that Pirandello is writing about a society where there are no unwanted children.....they are a source of joy". Corriere della Sera observed: "Il successo e stato particolarmente vivo e le recensioni della stampa molto positivo". *In August 2013 The National Theatre staged Liola adapted by Tanya Ronder."This touching and entertaining production glows with the warmth of summer...The director,

Richard Eyre Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Biography Eyre was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, the son of Richard Galfridus Hastings Giles Eyre and his wife, Minna Mar ...

, has cast the play with Irish actors, to evoke the rural nature of the piece", said Charles Spencer of

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

. "Particular mention must go to the central sparring partners Mita and Tuzza (Lisa Dwyer Hogg and Jessica Regan) and Aisling O'Sullivan as the latter's long suffering mother. In this world, you're either a wife or a mother – or nothing, as one character puts it. "That's all there is." Only for Liola (an assured turn by

Rory Keenan Rory Keenan (born 9 June 1980) is an Irish actor. Career Primarily a stage actor, Keenan has worked extensively in theatre in London. He has worked in film and TV from a young age. Most has performed in the National Theatre's acclaimed produc ...

) the freedom to be "pure nature"".

References

External links

* Liola by

a
University College Dublin
Index to Pirandello Studies, Vol 3 (1983), Liola p. 100-102 * Liola at The National Theatre on Vime

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liola Italian plays adapted into films Plays by Luigi Pirandello Plays set in Sicily 1916 plays