Henry IV: Followed by "The License"

Luigi Pirandello's "Henry IV" opened to general acclaim at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan on February 24, 1922, less than a year after his revolutionary theatrical achievement, "Six Characters in Search of an Author." The title of the later play suggests a historical drama, recalling Shakespeare's great history plays. Yet "Henry IV" is instead anti-historical in that it "plays with" history, presenting historical events not as sequential and true, but as simultaneous and as an imaginary refuge...