Right You Are! (If You Think So)

This is a great Italian play. Written by Luigi Pirandello, Nobel prize in Literature in 1934. Although the play has been written in 1918 it is a deep psychoanalytical play that could have been written today. It is the story of three people (Mr. Ponza, Ms. Ponza, Ms. Frola) that move to a new town because their previous town has been destroyed by an earthquake. Town people become suspicious because Ms. Ponza never leaves her home. So they start asking around. Mr. Ponza says: Ms. Ponza never leaves her room of her own volition. She is putting up a scene for the benefit of Ms. Frola, that would go mad if she was to know the truth about Ms. Ponza's identity. Ms. Frola says that, indeed, Ms. Ponza is not leaving her room of her own volition, but that the scene she is putting up is for the benefit of Mr. Ponza. HE would go mad if he was to know the truth. Pirandello uses this play to explore the nature of truth (Does the truth exists? Is the truth unique? Can the truth be known?), the nature of identity (what does it mean to say that a person IS Ms. Ponza and not someone else? what does define a person?) and the nature of mental illness (Who is mad? Mr. Ponza? Ms. Frola? or perhaps is it Ms. Ponza? or all three of them? or whom?) and of the suffering it brings. These are three major themes in Pirandello's work and come back time and again in most of his work. I read the play in Italian, but I left my copy in Italy, so when I bought this translation for a present I did not resist and re-read it. The translation is decent. I think the translation is actually good, but Pirandello is especially difficult to translate because he uses ambiguous expressions on purpose. The ambiguity sometimes gets lost in the translation when the translator is forced to choose a meaning over another. For example, the original title of the play is "Cosi' e' (se vi pare)" the translation offered here is "Right You Are (If You Think You Are). This is definitely one of the possible meanings in Italian, but there are at least another two meanings "Right you are (If you like to think you are)" and "This is it (Because you like it this way)". All three meanings matter in the play but the translator had to choose one.

"Heartbreak House" is typical Shaw in character, plot and commentary. His heroine is as easy to like as his villian. The main conflict between daughter and father run a symbolic parallel to the father's break with the entire family. Shaw seems to cut to the chase with his chastisement of the Salvation Army to which he deals the final death blow at the very end.Though it is a comedy it is very dark and cold. The funny moments are "laugh out loud" funny while a cold tone continues to brood underneath. Unlike the other Shaw I have read, the humour never quiet catches and quenches the icy tone of the play. As with most Shaw, the play ends on an "up". But the rather chilly last scene underscores his social comment on society.For a fan of Shavian comedy, this play is a thrifty buy.