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A play based on a real scandal is watched by people whose lives it depicts. As they recognize the story, they try to stop it; the staged lovers' conflict and the audience's own reactions begin to mirror each other, until Act III is canceled.
After an Italian aristocrat falls from his horse during a carnival pageant, he believes himself to be Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. Years later, visitors try to confront his identity and madness, leading to a violent final act.
Liolà is a middle-aged single father with three young sons by different mothers, roaming Sicily to enjoy nature and avoid ties to the children's mothers. After trying to sell one son to elderly Zio Simone, he learns from former lover Mita that he is father to her unborn child.
After an earthquake, provincial townspeople investigate the guarded Ponza family: Mrs. Frola says her daughter is alive and married to Ponza, while Ponza insists his mother-in-law is deluded and that his current wife is a second woman. Their contradictory explanations fuel the town’s demand for proof, but the veiled woman at the end claims to be both—and neither—of the identities they seek.
Six unfinished fictional characters interrupt a theatre company's rehearsal and ask its director to stage their story. As actors attempt to reproduce their scenes, arguments over truth and performance intensify, and the family's story ends with a child's drowning and a boy's suicide, leaving the director unsure whether the events were real.
The source lists theatre characters and staff, including a Director, performers, a Prompter and Wardrobe Mistress, alongside the Father, Son, Stepdaughter and Mother.
In a bar late at night, a dying man speaks with a businessman who has missed his train. Their dialogue contrasts the dying man's intense awareness of the little time left to him with the other man's ordinary preoccupations.
Leone, estranged from his wife Silia, responds to her affair by trying to empty himself of emotion. He manipulates her lover Guido into taking his place in a duel, where Guido is killed.
A company of actors, directed by Doctor Hinkfuss, improvises a drama about the La Croce family after its move from Naples to Sicily. Their performance about family scandal, jealousy and loss breaks down as the actors resist Hinkfuss's control, turning the production itself into part of the play.
A play based on a real scandal is watched by people whose lives it depicts. As they recognize the story, they try to stop it; the staged lovers' conflict and the audience's own reactions begin to mirror each other, until Act III is canceled.
After an Italian aristocrat falls from his horse during a carnival pageant, he believes himself to be Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. Years later, visitors try to confront his identity and madness, leading to a violent final act.
Liolà is a middle-aged single father with three young sons by different mothers, roaming Sicily to enjoy nature and avoid ties to the children's mothers. After trying to sell one son to elderly Zio Simone, he learns from former lover Mita that he is father to her unborn child.
After an earthquake, provincial townspeople investigate the guarded Ponza family: Mrs. Frola says her daughter is alive and married to Ponza, while Ponza insists his mother-in-law is deluded and that his current wife is a second woman. Their contradictory explanations fuel the town’s demand for proof, but the veiled woman at the end claims to be both—and neither—of the identities they seek.
Six unfinished fictional characters interrupt a theatre company's rehearsal and ask its director to stage their story. As actors attempt to reproduce their scenes, arguments over truth and performance intensify, and the family's story ends with a child's drowning and a boy's suicide, leaving the director unsure whether the events were real.
The source lists theatre characters and staff, including a Director, performers, a Prompter and Wardrobe Mistress, alongside the Father, Son, Stepdaughter and Mother.
In a bar late at night, a dying man speaks with a businessman who has missed his train. Their dialogue contrasts the dying man's intense awareness of the little time left to him with the other man's ordinary preoccupations.
Leone, estranged from his wife Silia, responds to her affair by trying to empty himself of emotion. He manipulates her lover Guido into taking his place in a duel, where Guido is killed.
A company of actors, directed by Doctor Hinkfuss, improvises a drama about the La Croce family after its move from Naples to Sicily. Their performance about family scandal, jealousy and loss breaks down as the actors resist Hinkfuss's control, turning the production itself into part of the play.