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

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, 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 bold and ...

in 1916, which takes place in 19th century

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. The original text was composed in the Sicilian dialect of

Agrigento Agrigento (; or ) is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. Founded around 582 BC by Greek colonists from Gela, Agrigento, then known as Akragas, was one of the leading cities during the golden ...

. 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.

Film adaptations

* '' Liolà'' directed by

Alessandro Blasetti Alessandro Blasetti (3 July 1900 – 1 February 1987) was an Italian film director and screenwriter who influenced Italian neorealism with the film ''Four Steps in the Clouds''. Blasetti was one of the leading figures in Italian cinema during the ...

; written by Sergio Amidei, Elio Bartolini, Alessandro Blasetti, 1964 * ''Liolà'' di Gabriele Lavia, 2005

Theatrical adaptations

*The

Bloomsbury Theatre The Bloomsbury Theatre is a theatre located on Gordon Street in Bloomsbury, within the London Borough of Camden. It is owned by University College London. The Theatre has a seating capacity of 541 and offers a professional programme of innovati ...

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 Internationalism (polit ...

(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 also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

. 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 (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

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. Eyre has received numerous accolades including three Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for six BAFTA Awards and two ...

, 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 often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

. "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) 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