Pirandello's Henry IV

The Italian playwright’s masterful comedy interrogating the meaning of madness is reimagined in this translation by the author of Leopoldstadt.

In this meeting of two of the twentieth century’s greatest playwrights, Tom Stoppard has reinvigorated Luigi Pirandello’s masterpiece exploring the nature of madness and the limits of sanity.

After a fall from his horse, an Italian aristocrat believes he is the obscure medieval German emperor Henry IV. After twenty years of living this royal illusion, his beloved appears with a noted psychiatrist to shock the madman back to sanity. Their efforts expose that for the past twelve years the nobleman has in fact been sane.

With his mask of madness unveiled, the aristocrat launches an offensive to deflect their unwanted attention. While Pirandello’s characters verbally spar in Stoppardian flourishes, battling for the upper hand—and the greatest laughs—one question emerges: What constitutes sanity?