Six Characters in Search of an Author @ Lyceum 8 March

Have you ever wondered about the connection between art, reality and illusion? Imagine being created by an unknown artist who gives you the draft script of your life and then drops you, leaving you to sort out the mess. You might say that sounds familiar. And so would Luigi Pirandello's Characters who found themselves stuck in one of the most idiosyncratic plays of the twentieth century.

A collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland, The Lyceum and the Citizen's Theatre, Mark Thomson's new production scraps conventions. The play kicks off before the decoyed audience have even finished their pre-show drinks. We soon realise that we've come to watch actors rehearsing a new play-within-a-play, also written by Pirandello, just to confuse us even more. Petty jealousies and egotism collide as the melodramatic Director attempts to rehearse his cast of hacks.

Suddenly, six characters in sepia-toned costumes turn up in a box claiming to be looking for their author. They soon hijack the stage, desperate to tell and relive their haunting stories, but in a manner that reveals the truth. Through the extremity of their family drama, the Characters undermine the perception of actors as real in contrast to fictional people as imaginary. Strange as it may sound, the production reveals that we are not real, as we are always changing, and what we believed in yesterday might be irrelevant tomorrow.

Facing a constant shift in so-called moral standards, Thomson goes for David Harrower's contemporary adaptation of Pirandello's play to show the universal dimension of the text. But at times the well-chosen cast hesitate to credibly convey the drama of living between illusion and reality, leaving us slightly hungry for more gripping performances. Despite this the production was still well worth checking out as, due to its large cast and complexity, the piece is rarely staged.