My log says “little recollection” for this one, so I guess it didn’t make a big impression. Bobbie was with me.
Pirandello is one of those playwrights whose work I want to like more than actually do like. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that I tend to enjoy reading his plays, because the ideas are fascinating, but many of them are difficult to produce in an entertaining way – at least to the eyes of the modern audience.
Man, Beast And Virtue is an early Pirandello, written in 1919 (100 years ago as I write in 2019), about two years before his breakthrough play, Six Characters In Search Of An Author.
A relatively straightforward, slightly farcical, love-triangle piece, there is a synopsis of the 1950s film version, in somewhat broken English at the time of writing, on Wikipedia.
Trevor Eve played Paolino, the lover, Terence Rigby played Captain Perella and Marion Bailey (best known for her Mike Leigh connections both professionally and privately) played Mrs Perella. William Gaskill directed. Charles Wood had written a new adaptation of the play fro this production. A fine supporting cast too – here is the Theatricalia entry.
So did all that research just now bring the experience flooding back to me? Ever so slightly yes…but basically no.
Probably not really my type of play. I do recall the setting being very imaginative and a sense that I felt entertained for the evening.
Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:
Billington on Man Beast Sat, Sep 9, 1989 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Ratcliffe in The Observer thought little of it:
Ratcliffe on Man Beast Sun, Sep 10, 1989 – 46 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Perhaps Bobbie remembers something more about it?
