All Pirandello drama is dominated by a consciousness of opposites as a historical virtue and aesthetic goal. His great skill in solving life tragedies lies in the ability to reverse situations, with action that becomes tragedy through humour itself; indeed the comic essence is given by bitter laughter and a critical awareness, which is generally ironic or self-ironic.

The first stage of Pirandellian drama is typically inspired by Sicily, both in settings and language: the comedy " Liolà " fully attests this. In 1916 Angelo Musco had successfully appeared in this three-act “rural” pièce, written in Agrigento dialect, which Pirandello himself had described as “my freshest and most lively work”.
The scene is set in the country, in a rural area, within a very stereotyped representation of Sicily. Liolà, the person playing the leading role, is a farmer, with a merry and cheerful nature, happy to exist and enjoy women’s love. Uncle Simone, already advanced in years, has had not children so far, not even from his young second wife Mita: his constant thought goes to all the wealth that will be wasted upon his death.



On the other hand Liolà, even though unmarried, has had three children from three different women, who have chosen to abdicate their responsibilities as mothers and leave the kids to him. Rich Uncle Simone is consumed with his failure to have an heir, whereas his niece Tuzza has easily given herself to Liolà almost out of spite for Uncle Simone preferring Mita to her as his wife four years ago. Tuzza does not want to marry Liolà, who has proposed to her several times, but is planning to give the child she is expecting to old Simone, who is anxious to acknowledge him as his own. Tuzza, made pregnant by Liolà, is also planning this deceit out of greed for money and suggests to her uncle that he publicly claims paternity of the child, thinking that in this way she will have an assured future and have secured a preferential position within this small peasant society.
Having been ill-treated by Simone, Mita finds shelter in her aunt’s house and, in order to foil Tuzza’s plan, she spends the night making love to Liolà to pay her back in her own coin. On this occasion, Liolà is prompted by a natural sense of justice: to restore the balance with respect to Mita, who has been damaged without having done anything at all, and act against Tuzza, who is behaving in a deceitful and malicious manner. Shortly after this night spent with Liolà, Mita also announces she is pregnant and that the baby she is expecting is the child of her husband Simone, who therefore, at the height of happiness, reveals to his wife he has nothing to do with Tuzza’s pregnancy. Tuzza, feeling mocked, supplanted and abased in her role as future mother of the heir, and virtually out of her mind, hurts Liolà, who at this stage no longer wishes to marry a social climber, always open to betrayal. Liolà’s character, overflowing with liveliness, dancing and singing, who wanders around as a young lover, seducing women indifferent to the code of honour, is the typification of an unusual single father, who accepts three children born of his love affairs and of his procreating force. Now he would even be happy to welcome a fourth, Tuzza’s, but of course not the woman.
During the whole play, Liolà appears as the only really generous, kind and disinterested person, unlike the others, who are selfishly locked up in their own narrow-minded meanness. In this atmosphere focusing on the psychological study of the characters carried out by the author, a constant theme turns out to be betrayal, as well as a philosophical bitterness and sceptical approach towards mankind. What antagonises truth is the desire to appear in social life at all costs. This results in what we really are being often overcome by what we wish other people to think about us.

This dramatic world-view held by Pirandello’s characters is not mitigated (so to speak) by detached humour. In fact, irony and grotesque situations increase the inner tragedy of feelings. On the whole, people only laugh on the surface, because in the author’s opinion the soul of man is almost always obsessed with materialistic desires, it is lacking in rushes of generosity, not very sensitive about the people who suffer and ethically rotten.

This is demonstrated by the two-act play "A birritta cu’ i ciancianeddi", written in Sicilian dialect in August 1916, staged in Rome the next year at the Teatro Nazionale, again with Angelo Musco, and subsequently translated into Italian with the title
" Il berretto a sonagli " (Cap and Bells).
This play features Beatrice, the wife of Cavalier Fiorica, who is sure that her husband has an affair with the young wife of Ciampa, elderly clerk and right-hand man working for the family. Lady Beatrice decides to uncover her husband’s alleged affair and publicly expose the woman. So she thinks of an excuse to send Ciampa away from home: he is to go to town to redeem some jewels from the pawnbrokers, and he is to leave straight away. The old clerk, who as everybody knows usually locks his young wife in, this time, sensing that something is being plotted behind his back, takes her to Lady Beatrice’s house, so that she may spend the night at the Fiorica’s rather than being alone, even though safely locked in.
However Lady Beatrice does not allow in the person she deems to be her husband’s mistress, and the clerk has no choice but to lock his wife in, at home, and leave to carry out his assignment.
In the meantime, the police delegate Spanò is sent for by Lady Beatrice, who files an official report and explains to him how she thinks her husband meets with his mistress. It should be noted that Ciampa’s house is next to the study of Cavalier Fiorica and that the two places communicate by means of doors that are usually carefully locked, but which, if left open, can facilitate secret meetings without anybody suspecting anything.
This causes a scandal; the two lovers are arrested, but Spanò states that there are no elements supporting flagrant adultery, possibly out of regard to Cavalier Fiorica. To protect his good name and preserve people’s respect, Ciampa would now be expected to kill the two lovers, but he cleverly thinks of another option: Lady Beatrice, who has caused all this hassle giving no thought to the possible consequences, must give herself out to be frantic with jealousy, and use her madness to make up for the scandal. Everyone agrees.
So this is the plan, in everybody’s interest, including Lady Beatrice, and, according to this reversed logic, saying the truth is sufficient for people to think one is mad. As long as appearances are saved, everything is allowed and everyone in society must show the “point” of honour they have built for themselves and which others also impose on them in order to play the role that will make them appear respectable.
The theme of Ciampa’s mask lives in the various human facets as a form of defence and need for a good name, a behavioural even though theatrical requirement. When this mask drops and everyone finds out about the sorrows of his married life, Ciampa desperately clings to his “role” as the only option available for social survival and his resort to false insanity becomes the means to re-establish normality.
Translated by interpres sas