Six Characters In Search Of A Handout

Barrie Wheatley and Luigi Parindello
Theatre On The Edge
Paradise in Augustine

Almost a century ago, Luigi Pirandello wrote an absurdist play examining the relationship between character in a play and the playwright. Webster defines absurdism as a philosophy based on the belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless and that the search for order brings the individual into conflict with the universe.

In Pirandello’s play, a group of people with various life stories approach a troupe of actors asking that these actors write their story; they are unable to find their playwright. The theatrical milieu was the setting but at a time when all of the arts, painting, drama, fiction were examining their arts through this philosophy.

The idea is the same here but this group of people are stuck in a food bank waiting for a handout. There is something rather apropos in the balance between absurdism and poverty. Instead of an author, they get a media piranha looking for salacious story.

This large group of performers with a small smattering of talent bring in a painfully amateurish production. The Pirandello play does not hold up well in the hands of the adaption and direction by Barrie Wheatley and the On The Edge actors.

Reviewer: Catherine Henry Lamm

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