One Story, Many Truths: Rethinking "Six Characters" at Duke
Theater Studies’ artist-in-residence for the semester, Jonathan Cullen, will bring the metatheatrical production “Six Characters in Search of an Author” to Sheafer Lab Theater in April. Written by Luigi Pirandello in 1921, the play opens on a rehearsal suddenly interrupted by six figures: the Father, Mother, Step-daughter, Son, Boy and Child. Claiming that their creator abandoned them, the group demands an author to finish their story.
But what began as a straightforward staging of the spring mainstage has quickly evolved into something more dynamic. Bringing this play to life has meant navigating the complexities of translation, adaptation and collaboration. “The original 1920s translation was dense and culturally anchored in its time, so it didn’t quite resonate with our students or a contemporary audience,” Cullen explains. “
Enter Neal Bell. The Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Professor of the Practice of Theater Studies began adapting the play with its central tension in mind: the uneasy boundary between reality and illusion. Bell saw clear parallels between Pirandello’s fractured postwar world and today’s climate of competing truths. His early drafts introduced contemporary references, but he ultimately scaled them back to preserve the original’s playfulness, instead setting the story in a modern university rehearsal room and reimagining the actors as students.
Bell also streamlined Pirandello’s text, tightening the script while restoring key moments to preserve its emotional core, and expanding the inner lives of the student actors to reflect the uncertainty of pursuing theater today. In the end, the company built a version that feels immediate and legible without losing the play’s essence.
We sat down with Cullen to discuss the evolving process, the play’s contemporary relevance and what he hopes audiences take away.
This production has gone through several iterations. How did that process shape the final piece?
It’s been a genuinely evolving process, at times messy but incredibly rewarding. We began with a literal translation, which had all the accuracy but not much immediacy; it was quite difficult for students to connect to. Then Neal [Bell] came in with an adaptation that was much more dynamic, but even that didn’t remain fixed. As we got into rehearsals, it became clear that there were certain moments and themes — especially around power, coercion and contemporary parallels — that the students weren’t comfortable with. Rather than pushing ahead, we paused and listened. That meant going back, revising scenes and, in some cases, rethinking entire approaches.
There was a group effort to make sure no one felt forced into material they couldn’t stand behind. So in the final version, audiences will see the result of multiple layers of adaptation: Pirandello’s original, Neal’s interpretation and then our collective reshaping in rehearsal. For me, it became a lesson in how to pivot, collaborate and let the process actively shape the product.
Italy in the 1920s seems like worlds away from North Carolina in 2026. Will this production resonate with contemporary audiences?
One of the striking things has been realizing just how little some of these dynamics have changed. At one point, we explored parallels between the stepdaughter’s story and contemporary cases of coercion and exploitation, and the similarities were unsettlingly close. Even without making those references explicit, that emotional truth remains in the piece.
More broadly, the play is about competing narratives within a family where each member has a different version of the same events — and not everyone has equal power to tell their story. That question of who gets to speak, who gets believed, what is the truth and who controls the narrative feels incredibly current. It’s something we encounter every day, whether in media, politics or personal relationships. And because the characters are archetypal, it takes on a kind of mythic quality that allows audiences to see their own experiences reflected in it.
Speaking of audiences, what do you hope they take away from the performance?
On one level, I hope audiences simply enjoy it and are struck by the commitment and energy from the students. Beyond that, I hope the play lingers a bit, with people thinking about perspective: how stories are constructed and whose version the public tends to accept.
There’s a moment in the play where the stepdaughter essentially asks, “Whose version is it — yours or mine?” and for me, that sits right at the heart of the piece. It’s not just a theatrical question; it’s a social one. Who has the authority to define reality? Who gets heard and who gets sidelined? I hope it prompts people to think about their own families and how those structures operate, how they assign roles and how difficult it can be to break out of them.
Finally, I hope audiences come away with a renewed appreciation for theater as a truly collaborative art form, one that only exists through the shared efforts of everyone in the room — actors, designers, production crews and the audience. In a world focused on what’s next, live theater resists that pull.
Each performance is like a fresh-baked serving of theater every night. What could be tastier?
Performance Information
“Six Characters in Search of an Author” will be presented: April 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11 at 8:00pm and April 5 and 12 at 2:00pm
Sheafer Lab Theater | tickets: Duke University Box Office