Headlong Theatre has created a radical new version of Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 play Six Characters In Search Of An Author, which blurs the borders between fiction and reality.

In Six Characters In Search Of An Author, six strangers arrive unannounced during the editing of a documentary film. These abandoned fictional characters have an appalling story to tell and are desperately seeking someone who can tell it for them. The documentary maker agrees to film their tale, but does not understand quite what she is letting herself in for.
Adapted by Rupert Goold and Ben Power (Faustus), the play has been updated and re-contextualised for a modern audience, becoming a dark parable for a media-obsessed age.

This is the first West End transfer for touring theatre company Headlong which staged The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida theatre in March 2008 and Angels In America at the Lyric Hammersmith in June 2007. Six Characters In Search Of An Author was originally staged in Chichester before transferring to the Gielgud theatre.

Goold is in his second season as Artistic Director of Headlong and has achieved considerable success in recent years, both with the company and as a freelance director. His production of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart also transferred from Chichester to the Gielgud theatre last year, and swept the boards during the awards season, with Goold receiving the 2008 Best Director Laurence Olivier Award.

For more information about Six Characters In Search Of An Author read our Big Interview with Rupert Goold or our First Night Feature.