It is considered the apex of Pirandello's dramaturgy. Originally conceived as a “novel to be made”, the text then took shape in the shape of a drama: a “comedy to be made”, where theatre itself was the focus of the performance and the object of the staging. The characters' independent lives, their desire to come to light, their abandonment by the auctor, and their miserable and painful stories are presented in an intense, alienating atmosphere and represent a concentration of Pirandello's semantics, symbolism, biography, and language.
The novelty of Sei personaggi took the audience by surprise at its Roman premiere at the Teatro Valle on 9 May 1921, but this did not prevent its triumph at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan a few months later. With Sei personaggi, Pirandello the playwright rose to worldwide fame. His constant reflection on his “comedy” led the Agrigento-born writer to make a series of changes to the original 1921 text, which were first stabilised in the 1925 edition.
